Best of her faculty: Mayerly's story
Born in Pijao, she financed her degree with an ICETEX loan, lived at the Node and graduated top of her Law faculty. This is her story, in her words.
Mayerly Mesa Mejía was born in Pijao, into a family of limited means. Her goal was to study Law: an expensive degree, far from her municipality. She financed her tuition with an ICETEX student loan and applied to the student residence we now know as the Pijao Node.
What she found there was not a miracle but something simpler and rarer: conditions. With the backing of the Frailejones Foundation and Lotus Children’s Foundation, she had dignified housing, proper nutrition and academic tools. She tells it like this:
“Thanks to the Lotus Children’s Foundation and Frailejones Foundation, I was able to live in better conditions, access proper nutrition, and benefit from essential academic tools. This environment gave me the strength and stability to keep moving forward.”
She did not just finish her degree: she graduated best of her Law faculty at the University of Quindío, and her university recognised the achievement with a 50% scholarship for a postgraduate specialisation.
And then she did the thing that defines the spirit of the Node: she came back. She became the first volunteer of the Frailejones Foundation, supporting, among others, the Elderly Support programme. Receive support, graduate, give back — Mayerly closed the full circle, and today she is living proof that the model works.
The lesson she leaves us is not about exceptional talent (though she has it). It is about what happens when talent stops being spent on survival: the distance between a rural young woman in debt to study and the best lawyer of her class was, precisely, a dignified home, three meals and a desk to study at.
“My story is not just about me — it is about all of us from underserved communities who dare to dream and work for a better future.” — Mayerly Mesa Mejía