An International Perspective – the ‘Brazilian team’

Posted on Tuesday, August 27th, 2019

The Brazilian TeamYene Paz had it all: a PhD, a home with her husband in the city of Recife on Brazil’s northeastern coast, and a career in environmental science as a university professor.

Yet Paz left it behind to come to Canada and attend Algonquin College this fall to study regulatory affairs. It was time for a change, she says simply.

“When I talk about my career in Brazil, I always say I wrote a very good chapter. I did everything I planned when I was a teenager. I went to university, I did my master’s, I did my PhD in development and environment and started teaching. I wrote a beautiful chapter. But my dream was to turn the page and write another one. That’s why I’m at Algonquin.”

Paz isn’t the only person to feel this way. This semester she is one of four members of a supportive band on campus who call themselves “the Brazilian team.” Gathered at a table looking out on the Ishkodowan courtyard, they agree to talk about how they’ve come from far-flung parts of their tropical homeland and found common cause pursuing their goals.

France Montenegro — “I have two countries in my name,” she notes — comes from Fortaleza, an important industrial and commercial city on Brazil’s Atlantic coast, to study health services office administration. “I worked in this field in Brazil but I wanted to learn more and to improve my English,” she says. Her sister and sister-in-law studied at Algonquin, and both recommended it to her.

Yoshizumi Terada, a financial consultant in the megacity of Sao Paolo, population 13 million, sought a Canadian city and a school where he could pursue his studies. He considered Edmonton (“Too far away from everything,” he says; “Too cold,” says Montenegro, to general laughter around the table) before looking at Ottawa and its post-secondary schools. “Algonquin’s accounting and financial practice curriculum had the most practical thrust,” Terada says, “which is what I was looking for.”

Jennifer Miranda is a native of Brasilia, Brazil’s capital. “I have a career already in Brazil but my dream was to study in another country and improve my English,” she says. “Why Ottawa? First of all because Algonquin has a good course in business accounting and a good reputation. I did my research about it, fell in love with it and decided to study here. I also have friends who took courses here and they gave it a very good recommendation.”

Paz, meanwhile, says social media was an important influence when she was determining where to live and study.

“Finding a place to study in Canada was a kind of dream for me,” she says. “But I didn’t know where because Canada is so big and has so many universities and colleges. I chose Algonquin because of the appeal of Ottawa and Gatineau, and all the good things people were saying about the College on Facebook and other social media.”

She and the others interrupted their careers to become international students with the College.

Miranda, worked for eight years as an analyst in financial administration in Brasilia. “This is not our first experience in college. We had careers. It’s a huge decision to leave them behind.”

Terada was rising in a profession with many opportunities for advancement. But with that promise came significant job-related stress. When he began to sense that it was taking a toll on his health, he knew it was time for a change.

“I had to rethink what I wanted,” he says. “It had always been one of my goals to discover another country, but I didn’t have the chance earlier.
Now I can do it, take care of my health, and improve my skills in English and new technologies like artificial intelligence.

“People questioned my decision: ‘Why are you doing this? We could invest in you!’ But no. What I wanted was to study and work and have access to another culture.”

Some members of the team will be joined by family while they are in Ottawa. Still, they talk wistfully about leaving parents and friends and familiar places behind. Almost in the same breath, each one speaks in glowing terms about their experience of their new home.

Terada, accustomed to the cosmopolitan chaos of Sao Paolo, enjoys Ottawa’s more compact size, relaxed atmosphere and safe streets.
Miranda says coming to the capital of Canada from Brazil’s capital was not such a big leap. “I’m at home here. I’m used to the environment of a government city, one with a good quality of life like Ottawa.”

“And people are so friendly here,” adds Montenegro.

“It’s amazing,” says Miranda. “Last week I was here to pick up my cards and I was lost because the College is so big! Someone must have sensed this and came up to me, saying ‘Are you lost? Can I help you?’ Everywhere we go, we find the attitude is ‘Welcome, you are in college now and how can we help you?’ It is especially important to us international students.

“I find myself comparing my first time in school with now. This is totally different: the organization, the information you are given before you start, everything I’m experiencing is so positive.”

Left to right: Yene Paz, Jennifer Miranda, France Montenegro, Yoshizumi Terada


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