Camila Antonia Amaranta Vallejo Dowling

In 2006, Vallejo entered the University of Chile to study geography. There, she started forming ties with leftist students and getting involved in politics, which led her to join the Chilean Communist Youth the next year. She was counselor of Fech in 2008, and was chosen as its president in November 2010, becoming only the second woman to hold this post in the 105-year history of the student union.
“We believe that the key to a successful student movement is to reposition the Federation to that of Vanguard at the national level; to return to interweave social networks with the people, the workers, with social organizations, the trade unions, and with the youth who did not make it into the University - who were left kicking stones. In other words, we speak of returning our vision to the array of social problems that surround the University, with which we are intimately tied to and committed to." —Camila Vallejo, Fech President speech (November 2010)
On 7 December 2011, Vallejo was defeated in her bid for re-election by Gabriel Boric, a Law School graduate. In October 2011 she was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Youth of Chile at its XIII National Congress.
Vallejo has acquired public attention as a leading spokesperson and leader of the 2011 student protests in Chile, alongside other student leaders: Giorgio Jackson from the Catholic University of Chile Student Federation and Camilo Ballesteros from the University of Santiago, Chile Student Federation.