My name is María Cristina and I am a professor at the Universidad del Valle, where I support teacher training processes in mathematics education. I hold a degree in Mathematics and Physics, and I first learned about FUNDAEC about 35 years ago through Dr. Edmundo Gutiérrez, who was one of my professors at the university. At that time, FUNDAEC needed to strengthen its academic team, and after an initial invitation I joined the foundation, without imagining that this decision would profoundly transform both my personal and professional life.
My relationship with FUNDAEC began by working with the first group of students from Colombia´s Pacific Coast. In that early stage there were no trained tutors yet, so the FUNDAEC team itself took on the role of tutor directly. Every so often we traveled to Buenaventura, where students arrived from their communities for intensive learning sessions. Later, I carried out field visits along the rivers, meeting families, seeing productive projects, and learning about the daily realities of the young people. That direct contact with community life permanently shaped the way I understand education.
Over time, I took on a key role in the training of teachers from all over the country, using as a reference the work of the core FUNDAEC team, many of whom were authors of the texts that supported the Tutorial Learning System (SAT). There I understood that education is not limited to a single field of knowledge, but becomes meaningful when it is integrated with other disciplines, with real life, and with a clear purpose of service.
Although my university training was strong in theory, it was at FUNDAEC that I learned to bring knowledge into action. The possibility of integrating mathematics, physics, and human dimensions in real contexts was deeply impactful for me. However, what most shaped my life was the human quality, a deep coherence between discourse and practice, between what was taught and how service was lived.
I believe that this coherence is the key reason why those who go through FUNDAEC develop such a genuine vocation of service. In that environment, hope is nurtured, the ability to serve others is strengthened, and people come to understand that what truly transforms others is not what is said, but what is lived and demonstrated through example. That way of relating to the world becomes contagious; it spreads and continues to grow within each person who becomes part of the process.
If I had not known FUNDAEC, my life would be completely different. I would probably be a teacher who taught mathematics in a mechanical way, disconnected from reality and from the deeper meaning of learning. FUNDAEC transformed the way I think, teach, and live. It gave me a permanent openness to knowledge, to the integration of disciplines, and to understanding education as a living and meaningful experience.
Today, at the Universidad del Valle, that formation continues to guide my teaching practice. My classes start from everyday life, from dialogue, and from the collective construction of knowledge. I do not organize the classroom in rigid rows, but in meeting spaces where everyone can see each other, listen, and participate. Many students refer to me as “the unconventional professor”, and I owe that to FUNDAEC. For me, these 50 years represent thousands of transformed lives, strengthened communities, and an integral way of thinking about the world that goes beyond borders and territories.
