When teacher Liliana talks about teaching, she does not speak only about classes, notebooks, or academic content. She talks about planting seeds. About supporting a young person until they discover that they can go further than they ever imagined. About showing them that opportunities exist and helping them find them. Perhaps that is why her story moves us so deeply: Liliana was given an opportunity to continue her education, and she chose to turn it into many opportunities for her students. 

Miriam Liliana Duque Salazar is a teacher at Institución Educativa Rural Obispo Emilio Botero González, located in the rural community of Las Mercedes in Marinilla. Although she initially studied Petroleum Engineering and later earned a master’s degree in Biotechnology, more than 16 years ago she discovered that teaching was where she truly wanted to be. She has spent most of that journey as a rural teacher.  

But her story with teaching actually began much earlier. When she was in school, she was the one who would stay behind some afternoons to explain mathematics to her classmates. Years later, while pursuing her master’s degree, she rediscovered that calling while teaching chemistry and laboratory courses at Universidad Nacional. There, she confirmed something that seemed to have always been part of her: her happiness came from teaching and supporting others in their learning journeys.  

Her path later took her to teach in different regions of Antioquia and, eventually, to become a rural teacher. There, she came to understand that a teacher can transform the way a young person imagines their future. 

“Teaching is planting passion.” 

Liliana recalls this phrase by Francisco Cajiao to explain what she strives to do every day. During her nine years as a rural teacher in El Santuario, she explored the surrounding territory and its water sources with her students, while also working to inspire in them the desire to continue their education. With great emotion, she recalls how several young people who once saw learning a trade as their only option began applying to universities, pursued higher education, and, in some cases, eventually returned to their communities.  

And while she was planting dreams in her students, Liliana continued building her own. She had already begun a Doctorate in Education at Universidad Católica de Oriente when she decided to approach Fundación Fraternidad Medellín and share her story. In 2025, she received a scholarship that enabled her to continue her doctoral studies—an opportunity that, today, as she progresses toward earning her doctorate, she describes with one very special word: a blessing. “The happiness I felt when I found out was immense—for me, for my husband, for my family… it felt like the opportunity to keep moving forward and continue studying,” she recalls. 

But the opportunity Liliana received was never hers alone. Every day, what she learns finds its way back into the classroom, to her students, and to the broader school community. Her approach to teaching begins with recognizing that young people also have much to teach her, that they are partners in the learning process, and that the classroom is, above all, a space for sharing knowledge, questions, and interests.  

Her message to her students summarizes a lifetime devoted to learning and teaching: “I believe the greatest power lies in education.” For Liliana, knowledge is something no one can take away from us, and the opportunity to learn, engage in conversation, and experience different environments has the power to change the way we see the world.  

Stories like hers remind us why we believe so deeply in teachers. Supporting a teacher’s education is an opportunity that multiplies through every student who enters their classroom, every young person who discovers new possibilities, and every community that finds in education a way to build its future. Liliana expresses it in a way that moves us deeply: “Fraternidad Medellín has been a blessing for me, for my school, and for my students.” 

Liliana lo dice de una forma que nos conmueve especialmente: “Fraternidad Medellín ha sido una bendición para mí, para mi colegio, para mis estudiantes”.  

And perhaps that is the most beautiful part of her story: a scholarship may bear the name of one teacher, but its true impact can be written into the lives of hundreds of students. Because when an opportunity reaches someone who loves to teach, it never remains with just one person: it is shared, planted, and begins to blossom in the dreams of many more.