Camila Vallejo, the "student who can shut a city", has lost the race to be re-elected as the president of the most important Chilean students' organisation starting in 2012. She will, however, be the vice-president of the University of Chile's students. Despite this defeat, her political impact and popularity seem to grow stronger every passing day. She was featured in Time magazine's "person of the year" issue, and Guardian readers also voted her top of their own poll.

The student movement in Chile robustly criticised neoliberalism and shook the country's elitist democracy. Students were in the streets for more than six months, and showed that their own leaders can become political actors – Camila Vallejo being the most prominent of these.

At 23 years old, Vallejo was elected as president of the University of Chile students' federation in November 2010. At that time she was known only among university circles, but six months later she became a familiar face to most Chileans. She led the first massive students' march in June 2011, and with other student leaders, contributed to change the debate about education in Chile.

National and international media started to focus their attention on what is the most stable country in South America, but also one of the most unequal in the world. While Sebastián Piñera's administration promised a revolution in higher education, the real revolution was in the streets. Students eventually defeated the government, making Piñera the most unpopular president in the history of Chilean democracy. Polls showed 80% of public support for students and 26% for the president in the midst of the protests. Today, polls indicate 70% for students, and 35% for Piñera.

Chile has the most segregated educational system in the world and the promises of social mobility clash against a structure that reproduces social inequalities. Students, represented mainly by Vallejo, were able to communicate the negative consequences of neoliberalism in education. In the first months, media attention was very much focused on Camilla's attractiveness. She tolerated the typical Chilean "machismo" and tried to explain the motivations of the movement instead. Anchors and journalists may have predominantly asked her about her personality, or physical attributes, but Vallejo showed that her real impact was political. She was always open about being part of the Communist party in a country where political membership remains a stigma.

Conservative analysts and the government underestimated the movement, but the Chilean population saw in the protests an opportunity to demand radical changes. In a country where seven out of 10 students are the first in their families to attend a higher education institution, 83% of students who drop out within the first year belong to this group. Pro-market policies implemented during the last 30 years in Chile have demonstrated that their effects on the quality in education are limited, but their consequences for social equality are severe.

The new generation of Chileans has forgotten the fears associated with Pinochet's dictatorship. The "penguin revolution" in 2006 paved the path, but Michelle Bachelet's government neutralised its political effect. Piñera's administration, on the other hand, was not able to resist the student movement. In 2011, students left their indifference behind and embraced political action.

Neoliberal "common sense" is no longer the only paradigm in Chilean education. Furthermore, students recovered their historic position as protagonists of significant transformations in our society. "Educate, don't profiteer," was their slogan, and Camila Vallejo was their voice. Her future political influence is sure to be another outcome of the movement.