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I am from Rio de Janeiro and have lived most of my life in
my home town. I lived for three years in Singapore when I
was a teenager with my family, and absolutely loved it.
That's when I learned English. After a few years back in
Brazil, I decided to finish my undergraduate degree at The
American University of Paris in order to learn French and to
expand my horizons. I graduated from AUP in May 2008 and
came back to Rio where I have started a graduate degree
program in management at a prestigious marketing school.
I chose AUP because I was searching for a place where I
could interact with people of different cultures, since I
had missed this after having lived in Singapore. My goal was
also to gradually learn French, and I think I managed to do
that. I found in AUP a small but great university, a place
where you could be "a part of" and that is what I did – I
studied at AUP, worked at AUP, and hung out with friends at
AUP. It became a home to me.
I worked a lot on campus. I first started to work to help
my parents with tuition, but then I engaged myself further
as I got to know more people and the University itself. I
loved to help people, and made many friends.
My favorite place on campus was the Combes building. It
housed most of my Communications and Politics classes, as
well as the Admissions Office and the Public Relations
office, both places where I worked. And the best thing about
campus life at AUP is that you are in the middle of Paris –
a ten-minute walk could take you to the Eiffel Tower, Les
Invalides or even to the rue de Rivoli! I mostly enjoyed the
10th arrondissement where République is. I lived
there during my last semester and loved that there were so
many shops and restaurants around, and always people on the
streets. Paris is a mixture of cultures and offers countless
interesting activities for any type of person – very much
like AUP.
The internationality of AUP brought me what I was looking
for: people from various cultures that could show me
different worlds. The multicultural environment was key to
academic life. We had all heard of "cultural differences" on
TV back home, but when we arrived at AUP these differences
were experienced with warmth and companionship. Culture,
language, religion... nothing came in the way of good
friendships at AUP. Classes from the International Affairs
department were "must take" courses, because we ended up
learning more from the students than from the professors!
I did an internship during my last semester at AUP: I was
a marketing representative for Brazil in the Internet
company Jooce.com, founded by an AUP alum. The internship
was a lot of fun and provided me with a solid experience in
marketing and public relations… and also strengthened my CV.
My dream job is to eventually work in a multinational
organization here in Brazil, where I can use my languages
and experience from abroad. I would like to find a position
in the communications field, perhaps in public relations,
organizing corporate events and building social
responsibility programs for an international company. |
