This past weekend, on November 2 to November 3, BRASA at USF traveled to Atlanta, Georgia’s Emory University to attend the annual conference called BRAZUSC. BRASA at USF is an organization that promotes the Brazilian culture and values at the University of South Florida through events, workshops, tabling, and more. Many Brazilians got together to discuss the future of the country and how we can constructively contribute to it. Meanwhile, students were able to connect and share ideas to improve the chapters on their on campuses.
As mentioned on BRASA at USF’s website, “The Brazilian Student Association, commonly known as BRASA, is a worldwide non-profit organization with chapter in more than 70 universities and more than five countries. The common goal of every chapter is to empower and the next generation of leaders for a better Brazil.”
The event’s theme was “Dear President” in Portuguese or “Caro Senhor Presidente,” since Brazil had just elected the newest president, Jair Messias Bolsonaro. The all of the members of BRASA around the country had to present in the conference, had the mission to write a letter to him to reflect on the country’s needs, and had to acknowledge what we expect from this new government by highlighting the changes we desire to see on the next four years.
The conference had an attendance of approximately 350 students from across the nation. Nearly 40 students were coming from the University of South Florida, representing the largest group at BRAZUSC 2018.
During these two exciting days, the conference presented many guest speakers and professionals from different fields who work hard to make Brazil a better place for its people. One of them was Mr. Carlos Silverio, an artist who is also a professional in the advertising area. He talked about creativity and how Brazilian people express creativity through difficulty. He told us the story of when he had a meeting in Dubai with other professionals from his field of work, and he was challenged to talk about creativity and to share a little bit about Brazilian culture. He explained how we are all connected and how we can get inspiration from each other.
Other areas that we could learn more about included the environment, medicine, the media and its effects, women in the professional world, finance, music, and more. The diversity shown on the topics presented also represented the diversity we have in Brazil. Students coming from different states, carrying different stories, and interested in different things.
As the largest group, USF’s Brazilian students represented the love for their country, for this nation, and the Bull pride we all carry with us. These two days were full of positive energy and inspiration to transform Brazil and the environment that surround us every day, our own campus.
This is a publication by Gabriela Masiero, BRASA at USF 's director of Professional Development.
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