• Julia Solórzano, Human Biology alumna, secondary school teacher at Highlands International School (San Salvador, El Salvador)

Julia Solórzano Rivas earned her undergraduate degree in Human Biology at UPF in 2010. Originally from El Salvador, she had been a resident in Catalonia since she was 19. Upon finishing her degree, she needed to find a job to renew her residency permit. ‘It seemed impossible then, because Spain was in the middle of a deep crisis. By January 2011, I was on my way back to my country’, she explains.

Of the university, she remembers, above all, the sea, near the campus; crossing through Hospital del Mar to go to lunch with her friends; intense exam weeks marked by little sleep... ‘But it was all worth it. I am very grateful to my tutor, Meritxell Girvent, who was with me throughout my degree programme and helped me at times when I was ready to give up.’

Upon returning to San Salvador (El Salvador), Julia earned a postgraduate degree in pedagogy and then, on a scholarship, went to I-Shou University (Kaohsiung, Taiwan), where she earned a degree in Medicine. Today, she is the homeroom teacher for 11th-grade girls at Highlands International School, in the Salvadoran capital, where she teaches biology and chemistry. In addition to her homeroom, she is responsible for the science laboratory.

‘I love teaching. My students are my main and most vital challenge, all of them. Each one of them matters and how you treat them and convey information to them is crucial, not only so they learn, but so they can use it one way or another in their lives. If my knowledge and person come through in them, then I will know I have done a good job’, she says.

And she is succeeding in this goal, as witnessed by the award she received in September 2020 from the Salvadoran Ministry of Education for good teaching practice during the Covid-19 emergency. Julia is one of ten winners of the competition, which recognizes the challenge of teaching chemistry and biology, along with the commitment to motivating students, that led her to search for new digital tools.

“Teaching is about touching lives, lives that are still developing and on which you can have an impact.”

‘In the first weeks of the lockdown I saw that if you taught online classes the same way you taught face-to-face classes, you would not reach the students.’ She adds, ‘My goal was to make sure that all of them were learning and motivated for their online classes. I tried out new materials and methodologies and they responded positively.’

Julia’s plans for the future are focused on teaching at various levels, including university teaching, and she does not rule out returning to Barcelona. ‘You never know. I will probably go for a holiday, but I don’t know if it would be to live there.’ For her, teaching is about touching lives, lives that are still developing and on which you can have an impact.

Photo gallery

Julia Solórzano while teaching and showing thediploma that she received from the Ministry of Education of El Salvador. In the last photo, with the Minister of Education Carla Hananía, the Vice Minister of Education and the Ad Honorem Coordinator of Education