Dean Araya and her story “Cinderella”: I don’t want to give hope, I want a just society

“My old lady sold ice cream on the bus while I was going to the US When I was born we lived near my grandmother and because there was no money we were declared childless. He won a scholarship and worked cleaning toilets while he was getting his Ph.D. Today I was elected Dean of UMCE.”

Two hundred characters are few to tell a life story, but in times of social networking, brevity is a virtue that helps reach more people if it is accompanied by a powerful and inspiring story like the one written here.

Tens of thousands of people have given a “Like”, since Wednesday, to the tweet Pablo SizeThanks to him, they discovered the choice of their mother, Elisa Araya Cortez, as the first woman to reach Chaplain of The Metropolitan University of Education Sciences (UMCE).

My old lady sold ice cream on the bus while I was going to the US When I was born we lived near my grandmother and because there was no money we were declared childless. He won a scholarship and worked cleaning toilets while he was getting his Ph.D. Today she was elected Dean of UMCE

– Pablo Saez (@pssaeza) June 2, 2021

Physical Education Teacher, Kinesiologist and PhD in Education SciencesAnd the Elisa Araya I spoke on Friday with cooperative She thinks of the long distance it has taken to reach the address of the House of Studies. While proudly claiming his personal and family history, he says it reflects, deep down, the tragedy of social inequality, which, despite the country’s progress in recent decades, continues to keep thousands of young people mired in poverty. chances.

“They tell me that my story gives hope… I don’t want to give hope, I want society to be justAraya said in an interview with Talking about.

“my grandmotherAlthough he went to school, he did not learn to read or write, he came to Santiago and Profession from employee. My mother went to primary school barely. Then we are there and we were able to go to university; inside that I I was able to continue studying, get my PhD abroad, in Europe… looks like Cinderella, (But) When I think about it I say: “Gee, this country hasn’t changed much in these thirty or forty years, because being an academic in UMCE, I have students with similar stories to mineAnd the Until nowArya Meditation.

“My grandmother, although she went to school, did not learn to write…I got my PhD abroad. It looks like Cinderella. They tell me my story gives hope. I don’t want to give hope, I want society to be just”
Talking to University President Elisa Araya #CooperativeInHome

– Paula Molina (paulamolinat) June 4, 2021

“The fact that people are so curious that someone from my social background arrives at the rectory is clear evidence of social injustice of the educational system and the economic model in general that we have built”, raises.

“Merit will work if we all start at the zero line on the same terms, and with the same odds, the same help … not so. Why should it cost so much? Wouldn’t it be beneficial for the country for everyone to study? “

And the rector of the university considers that “it should be noted that the economic elite does not know what is happening in the country itself, (well) this is very dangerous.”

He gave as an example, regarding the current context of the pandemic, “the words of (former) Minister Manyalic, amazed at the way people live in the country.”