Having graduated from YYGS, I felt more motivated than ever to become active in the engineering world. I left with a new-found sense of personal discovery and ambition to do more and be more like the environment I had been immersed in. I thus scoured the internet for a work experience placement, and discovered a competitive program at BP (British Petroleum), where the accepted applicants would work between the geophysics and petroleum engineering department.
I am now working on a project that is called “Sacbé”. Sacbé means “Pathway of light” in Maya. And this is the perfect definition of what I and other special and important people to me in this group are trying to make, because we believe that everyone has a special sparkle that will help others.
Over the past three years, I have been fortunate to volunteer for the Glass Door Project, a homeless charity in London. Through the work which I have done and the relationships I have built with fellow volunteers and guests, I have benefitted enormously and have enjoyed myself greatly.
I am currently conducting research partnering with my school to investigate the effect of disparity between the parents’ and the parachute kids’ expectations of autonomy on their communication experience.
I recently completed a community service project called “Totes for Hope,” where I provided bags to wheelchair-bound residents in local nursing homes. Many people do not realize that many patients do not have places on their wheelchair to hold personal items. The bags would make life a little easier for such patients by providing a convenient way to hold items as they focus on their health. I raised money through my Go Fund Me and also collaborated with local tailors in India to create the bags to help boost the local economy in the less wealthy parts of India.
Soon after returning from YYGS, I co-founded the International Youth Political Forum with several other high-school students interested in international relations, including many PLE III alumni. We officially launch on September 1st, and we are currently writing 10-12 articles every week to post on our website. These pieces discuss various global conflicts or events from the perspectives of the different countries involved to help students see multiple sides to the same issue and to facilitate discussion and compromise.
Post-YYGS, I decided to apply what I learned about perseverance and passion in the scientific field to a web application project that helps students record their club minutes in a more organized and efficient manner. Based in a full-stack-style python framework called Flask, this project contains many intense hours of planning, coding, and Googling for syntax. Along with Flask, I am utilizing html templates, javascript, and css.
After YYGS, I decided that we must encourage public school students to pursue summer programs in other countries - not only in Brazil or in the USA. In order to do that, I am already talking to my school about planning lectures, talks and informational sessions about YYGS and all the other programs we have around the globe. By doing that, we open scholars’ horizons and help them creating a bigger pool of opportunities for their future.
At home, I’m sure most of you can relate to the fact that everyone seems to conform to the standards of the society set upon us, so we get this sense of self-deprivation from our true personalities, quirks, and differences. At Yale, however, we’re all coming together from different parts of the world with no pre-conception of what culture we’re supposed to assimilate to, so immediately, we’ve created a new culture where people are free to be themselves, show their quirks, and celebrate their differences.
It’s the after curfew philosophical talks, the Sunday morning run, hearing new ideas and new perspectives every day. It’s taking closer looks at 800-year-old gold-gilded manuscripts, walking around Yale’s campus during family time. Everything was like new ground for anyone with an endlessly curious mind to fulfill and adapt their vision, which I found fascinating.
