Rio de Janeiro to the Rio Wabash: BSMP Engineering Students from Brazil Arrive at ISU
July 1, 2015
Written by Lisa Hathaway, ISU Student Assistant
The Brazil Scientific Mobility Program (BSMP) is a year-long, non-degree program for Brazilian students to study abroad in the United States. BSMP comprises part of the Brazilian government’s larger 
initiative to grant 100,000 Brazilian university students the opportunity to study abroad at the world’s best schools. What an honor for our center to host 16 of these wonderful students! Fabio Augusto Barcelos Teixeira explained that he felt right at home and extremely normal. He experienced little homesickness and culture shock. Haroldo felt the same, “It’s not so different from Brazil. I like it here.” Haroldo Nunes De Madureira Filho also tells that he has never attended a school with so many international students. “I was, like, yay!” exclaimed Guilherme Henrique De Vasconcelos Moitas with a chuckle, “I have a new life…but I also feel alone. I am alone. I came here with these guys, but still, I am alone.” Guilherme thoroughly enjoys the peace and quiet of Indiana.
How English Connects to Their Field
The BSMP highlights science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Guilherme is studying control in automation. He explains that English is important for all fields, “it’s a universal language.” Haroldo majors in mechanical engineering. English provides the opportunity to get better jobs. Countries can communicate more thoroughly in English. Also a major in control and automation, Fabio expounds on the universal language idea: “Everything is in English. All the books and manuals, even in Japan, come in English. Knowing another language gives a different way to solve problems […] Brazil needs that. Brazil needs to produce, to be ahead.”
Ideas for the Present and for the Future
While in America, Haroldo wants “to improve English, know a lot of great people, and to improve myself.” Upon returning to Brazil, Haroldo may become a professor, but definitely aspires to open his own business.
Fabio wants to get to familiarize himself with a larger university. Primarily, though, he yearns to know a culture that is patriotic, a culture that believes in itself. “If I know the American culture, I will know where to improve. I want to make a better Brazil.”
“I want to absorb everything, I want to love every moment while I am here,” Guilherme stated. He plans to take advantage of this marvelous opportunity. When he gets home he will resume his internship position. “I will use everything I have learned here.”
South America just lost some wonderful people for the next year. These 16 young men will do wonderfully.