For me, “to prepare” and “ to educate” students are not interchangeable terms. I believe that education must be emancipatory and critical, allowing students to collectively imagine alternative futures instead of just preparing students to insert themselves into unquestioned systems. For me, solutionary thinking represents an alternative future to education.
Maria Fernanda Farias Briseño (Mafe) grew up in Queretaro, Mexico. Her interest in education was sparked by her own experiences with programs that envisioned a radical system transformation through education. Programs such as TALENTUM in Mexico; United World College in Singapore; Global Citizen year, and a gap year program in Ecuador where she worked as a co-teacher in a bilingual-intercultural school. She also worked as the program coordinator of Somos el Cambio–a STEM high school program–in Mexico before moving to Maine in 2019. Mafe received an undergraduate degree in Human Ecology at the College of the Atlantic in Maine with an interdisciplinary trajectory in the Arts & Humanities focusing on political and cultural anthropology, performance studies, and education.
Mafe strongly believes that a responsible and critical system transformation will be possible through collective learning, discussion, and decision-making for a restorative, healthy, and equitable future. She is excited to collaborate with the Institute for Humane Education.
