I have always dreamt about visiting America thanks to the difference of cultures when compared to Brazil. Also, having a chance to be totally involved with American culture in a leadership summer camp is a unique experience to enhance my vision of the world and personal skills.
After the program, I reached out to a connection that I made while in the US asking for an internship opportunity. I got it and since I am back in Brazil, I am applying everything I learned on this trip. The desire to improve constantly. Thanks to it, I stood up for this internship I am currently doing.
While in America, I felt like I could achieve things that I had never thought about in Brazil. It felt like in America there are a lot of opportunities to grow and develop myself related to real-world situations.
The program was not complicated but challenging. But the language difference was a thing. The real spoken English was different from the English I was taught while studying in Brazil. It took a while to get used to it.
A couple of weeks ago, I caught myself reading again some small notes my friends from Camp Hazen wrote for me. It was 2015 when they were written, and we were all part of the Leadership Program (LEA) at Camp. Years went by since that time, but the warm feelings the notes shared back then are still here.
I was a singer at the choir from Vila Olímpica da Maré, a social project situated in one of the biggest slums in Rio de Janeiro, Complexo da Maré. The director of the choir got in touch with BRAYCE, and I was invited to join the program that year.
That was the very first time I had a chance to work with kids – who would have imagined this would become my profession afterwards! As a LEA, one of our main tasks was to be close to the kids, paying attention to their needs, playing together, and living with them the many experiences camp would provide. Today, as a teacher from Lower School, that’s a great part of my daily routine.
Being in touch with this experience through BRAYCE was the seed of my professional and educational choices. Right now, having just been granted a master’s degree in education, I see how being part of social projects and getting in touch with other cultures was fundamental for the path I chose to take. As it turns out, the opportunities we share with young people are the legacy we leave in our world.
At the age of 10, living in a community without many opportunities in Brazil, I discovered that learning English was a dream of mine. Behind this dream was the desire to connect with the world and different cultures, and also the desire to take a little of my country to the world. Fortunately, I had the joy of joining an organization, Onda Solidária, which allowed me to be in contact with foreign volunteers and study opportunities that allowed me to turn my dream of learning a new language into reality. While growing up, I was able to get involved in leading the project to transform a devastated area of 27 hectares of Atlantic forest in my community into a green school: the Vila dos Sonhos social ecocenter. That’s how I met BRAYCE.
An incredible organization that allowed me to enhance my life skills and share everything I could learn with my peers. I was selected by BRAYCE at the age of 14 for a sociocultural exchange in the United States. Spending weeks at Camp Hazen YMCA and also with a lovely host family and my friends from Brazil who went with me. This was a unique experience of learning about a new culture, an experience of practically improving my level of fluency in the English language in addition to socializing with hundreds of young North Americans, having the opportunity to try a series of new sports, dynamics, games and reflections during the camp. When I returned to Brazil from this first experience, I started teaching English to dozens of my colleagues in my community, many of them even older than me. This exchange definitely strengthened my self-esteem and confidence in being able to contribute to change in my territory and in other people’s lives.
When I returned for another exchange in the United States at the age of 16, in 2019, I participated in the Leadership Program at the camp, which strengthened in a very special way a series of skills and values in me, such as commitment, proactivity, creativity, and respect for multiculturalism. In addition to the many friends I was able to make and continue to this day. Since then, in Brazil I have continued my journey of activism for education and sustainability. I was invited two years ago to be an ambassador for the largest environmental education program in Brazil, Ambiente Jovem and today, I am studying Law at the University of Brasília and working with sustainability at the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil. I have no doubt about the power of transformation and boost that programs like BRAYCE can have in the lives of so many young people, because I am proof of that. I am very grateful for the opportunities obtained and I always continue with the purpose and motivation of sharing and creating with the communities around me some of the opportunities that made me grow.
I’ve been part of the BRAYCE family ever since 2007, when I participated in the leadership program. Both my personal and professional life were being molded with that experience. Self-confidence, public speaking, and obviously my English improved so much. Nowadays I have my own tourism company in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The professional accomplishments, they all lead back to that amazing experience and for that I will be forever grateful.
I am Pauline Batista, a proud BRAYCE graduate from Paraty, Brazil, and now at the United Nations. How did this happen? This is my story.
I met Richard and Margot in 2008, when I was just a girl trying to support my family in escaping poverty like millions of others. BRAYCE entered my life, and the rest was history. In my town, my biggest dreams and ambitions before that were to attend a university in Brazil and become an English teacher, which is an honorable mission, only God had other plans.
BRAYCE selected me for their Cultural Exchange program in 2008. I then joined the Leadership Program at Camp Hazen and was grateful but not quite confident. I was fortunate to be introduced to the Executive Director, Denise Learned, staff members and many campers who helped me gain confidence and self-esteem. It is safe to say that with BRAYCE and Camp Hazen in my life, the sky became the limit. I met other wonderful people, including Chester’s Barbara Delaney, who helped me to see new horizons
With the help of the BRAYCE organization, I continued my education at Mitchell College, in New London, graduating with honors. I then went on to pursue a Masters in International Relations (UConn 2016). Immediately following, I started a PhD in Educational Leadership at the prestigious Neag School of Education. I am a UNESCO Youth Representative because my research is focused on global education for youth and how UNESCO impacts that. Based upon my work, UNESCO flew me to Angola in Africa last year to talk to the presidents of Portugal, Angola, Costa Rica, and other countries about pressing issues for youth. I published an article with UNESCO: www.unesco.org.
From that moment on, I knew exactly where I was meant to be, but it was BRAYCE that gave me the opportunity and helped me to become who I am now. I was reminded to be faithful and truly go for my dreams, which I did. I left my full-time job at the University of Connecticut and entered the United Nations as a full-time staff member. I am forever grateful for every single opportunity BRAYCE has given me, and for the unconditional love that Richard and Margot poured into my life, and many other lives, with the support of BRAYCE.