Student Profiles

Lu Ordman, Scripps College, Florianópolis 

My experience abroad was particularly unique as I spent part of it in Florianópolis at the beginning of the pandemic and then went back to the U.S. in March 2020 to complete the rest of the semester online. Although short lived, my time in Floripa was extremely impactful. I found UFSC to be a campus full of politically active and engaged students putting on interesting events and involved in activities that were pushing the boundaries of what I had previously had access to in terms of epistemologies from the Global South and Decolonial Studies. I was especially impacted by Karine de Souza Silva’s class on International Relations from a decolonial lens, something that I had never seen offered before in my university and luckily it was one of the classes that we were able to continue online. Beyond coursework I was involved in capoeira on campus and was beginning to get involved in dance and hiking in the area as well.  

Although it was hard to leave Florianópolis due to the pandemic, Sílvia Lorenso designed a semester of specialized classes taught by professors from all over Brazil that was tailored to my and the other students’ interests. From reading Professor Angela Gomes’ dissertation on ethnobotany, who later visited our class and showed us various plants in her garden, to creating a collaborative video project on the military dictatorship with another student, I had an enriching remote experience despite the difficult circumstances of the pandemic. Although we were not in the physical space of Brazil we dove deeply into these materials, conversations, and projects and I left with a profound knowledge base that has prepared me for all that I have done in Brazil since. I could not recommend this program more!

Elena Bell, Tufts University, Niterói

What I loved most about studying abroad in Niterói, Brazil, with Middlebury was being the only non-Brazilian student in all the classes I took. I loved that two or three days would go by without speaking English, and I am thankful for the way I learned how to think outside of my own worldview/perspective. Learning about systems of economic and social oppression from Brazilian professors and classmates helped me contextualize and better understand related but different systems in my own country, and empowered me to think outside the narrow mindset that is so easy to fall into being from the United States. Most Brazilians know the names of at least three states in the United States (California! Texas! New York!…) and a dozen or so American actors and actresses, whereas most Americans assume Spanish is spoken in Brazil, the fifth most populous country in the world. The small size of Middlebury’s amazing Niterói program allowed me to soak up as much of Brazil and Portuguese as my brain could retain, and sharing its importance back in the United States has been the long-term impact of my study abroad experience. I am excited to go back to Brazil with Fulbright in March to further promote empathy between the western hemisphere’s two most populous countries.

Colin Larsen, Middlebury College, Florianópolis

The year I have spent in Florianópolis, Brazil has presented me with a unique series of challenges and experiences that have allowed me to not only to considerably improve my language skills and cultural understanding, but to also make connections with Brazilians and become more personally independent. The lack of infrastructure and prevalence of bureaucracy can make many of the simplest tasks difficult in Brazil, and learning to deal with and overcome these hurdles has increased my resilience and problem-solving ability. It also creates a much different environment than what one would experience studying abroad in Western or Northern Europe, so those who wish to step further from the familiar would be satisfied with what they would find here. I spent a fair amount of time training with a local rugby team and learning the martial art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, both of which allowed to meet very genuine, friendly, and driven individuals who were kind enough to share some of their culture with me. Activities that go beyond the classroom like these are numerous, and they, more than anything else, have made my time here worthwhile.