Elis­a­beth Fiu­mara
Sopho­more, majoring in orga­ni­za­tional com­mu­ni­ca­tions
Dia­logue of Civ­i­liza­tions in Brazil

I have been living in Sal­vador da Bahia, Brazil, for one month on a Dia­logue of Civ­i­liza­tions pro­gram. Here, I am learning about Brazil’s emerging economy, its his­tory and the many cul­tures that make the country what it is today.

During the week, we have lec­tures and site visits all around Sal­vador that build upon what we have learned and put it into per­spec­tive. In par­tic­ular, we met with the former pres­i­dent of Brazil’s grand­daughter, Ale­jandra Kubitschek. She dis­cussed how far Brazil has come, how the con­struc­tion of the cap­ital city, Brasilia, changed every­thing and the fears of modern day Brazil­ians. With their economy growing and changing so quickly, for example, many fear severe infla­tion. We also par­tic­i­pated in ser­vice learning at The Bagunçaço Foun­da­tion, a youth center for children.

My per­spec­tive on how for­eign coun­tries operate has changed dras­ti­cally. Cul­ture is part of busi­ness, and I will bring this under­standing into my studies. I am studying orga­ni­za­tional com­mu­ni­ca­tions at North­eastern, so being able to see first hand how a country is rebuilding itself, and how it han­dles crises is incred­ible. I am looking for­ward to con­tin­uing learning Por­tuguese in the fall and get­ting back to a Por­tuguese speaking country. Working abroad is a goal of mine, and the Brazil Dia­logue has left me with many con­tacts and a new appre­ci­a­tion of the world.