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Moving to the United States and going to school isn’t something that everyone is cut out
for. There are a lot of certain things that you need to know before you can come over and have
any type of American schooling. Being aware of these things are very important because the last
thing you want is to come to the US and it be too much. Certain lessons and things that are
important to being a successful student coming from a different country are hard to learn and
take practice. It is very hard to wake up and say I am going to go to the United States and be a
student. You must be able to speak and understand English, have the mental and physical ability
to live far away from your family in a foreign country, and there are many more. There are
materials that you need to know that just aren’t something that would help you with your
academics. The United States government is involved also. You must require a visa to enter and
be called a student, and you must pretty wealthy because international students are not allowed to
receive financial aid. These are certain things that you need to understand before coming to the
US to become a student. Eunice has all of these mastered. If you were to meet her you wouldn’t
even know she was from Brazil. She is the perfect student to come to the United States and be
very successful.
Eunice Mendes Rodrigues Farias Mello is a female from Rio de Janeiro. She was born
and raised in Rio and is now a student at the University of Alabama majoring in Civil
Engineering. Eunice is a very interesting person to talk to. She comes from a culture that is very
different from traditional cultural in the United States. A culture surrounded by family, religion,
and you can never forget soccer. “Rio is home to a population of around 6.45 million people”
(Defavari 1). This is a lot of people in such a city, so you could say there are a bunch different
you have many different cultures all thrown into a small mixing pot. Not to say that United
States does not have different cultures, but in Rio you can walk down a street and you will hear
English, Spanish, Chinese, Latin, many different languages that you wouldn’t hear walking down
a street say in Hershey Pennsylvania. Eunice says, “People in Rio are genuinely really nice and
will help you with mostly everything that you need help with so culturally they are very
different, but here in Alabama mostly everyone that I have met is very nice.” I responded with
“it’s the southern hospitality because people are very nice in the south but the north not so
much.” This so different from the United States in the northern states where mostly everyone you
run into is probably not going to be very nice. Eunice throughout her life learned English. If you
met her you would probably think she grew up in the United States because her English is
perfect, but how she learned it is pretty mesmerizing. Brazil is known for its cultural diversity
especially Rio. Growing up there she heard many different languages. This is how she learned
English so well, and so fast. Her mother also spoke to her in English throughout her life. So, she
was able to learn English outside and inside her household which is pretty rare to see. Rio isn’t
the safest place in the world and growing up in Rio can always be hard. Eunice says, “there are
certain places in Rio that are very dangerous, but if you know where you are and you know
where not to go it isn’t that dangerous, and mostly the people that get robbed are the native
people who know they are traveling and visiting Rio.” This is very similar to life here in the
United States because there are cities that aren’t safe and people tend to stay away from the bad
areas, but people who aren’t aware of this are people that are more likely to get robbed. These
valuable lessons that Eunice was taught during her childhood that carry over to her life her in the
United States.
Growing up and going through school might be a little different than what you are
thinking. Eunice went through elementary and middle school and moved to High School. While
this doesn’t seem too much different, High School in Rio is only three years instead of four.
Schooling Brazil was different because you aren’t allowed to choose your own classes. A quote
from Eunice saying, “It’s funny because people say I have never taken chemistry before, but I
am over here having to take all the time.” (Rodrigues) That quote from her shows the difference
between schooling in Brazil and in the United States. Eunice did not go to regular High School.
She went to a technical school. These kinds of schools are popular in the United States with them
being four years of schooling, and it’s also the same in Brazil. Eunice went to High School for
four years. Technical Schools are schools where kids go to learn a skill for a job they want to do
when they are older. These skills could be electrical, agriculture, architecture, etc. Going to
technical school really helped and prepared her the road ahead traveling far from home and being
a civil engineering major. Knowing what you love to do and what makes you the most happy and
comfortable is something that you will only benefit from in the long run when you are at college.
Becoming aware of what you want to do before coming to study in the United States is a huge
deal. Eunice was able to go to a technical school for her high school diploma, and that prepared
her for the work that she would be receiving in college. The last thing Eunice would have wanted
is to come to the United States and end up disliking what she was doing, and that would have
ultimately led to her doing not so well in school. Then it would end up for her having to go back
to Brazil.
There were many parts of technical school that prepared her for the college world in the
United States. Many days their hours of schooling we very different from what we are used to in
public and private schooling. “We only have classes from like 7:30 to 12, so many we wouldn’t
have lunch, but if we did it would be called integral.” (Rodrigues). This quote tells you the
certain material and the day to day practices that prepared her. Have short schedules and no
lunch really prepared her mentally and physically for her path to college. The time period of
classes closely reflect what schedules can look like in college, and how sped up classes can be in
those short time periods. The no lunch isn’t out of spite it is just how the schedules line up and
there is no need to serve lunch. This doesn’t seem like much, but coming from a public and
private high school where lunches are given to you can mixed people up a little bit. “Integral is
where most people choose to go, because the parents don’t have to take care of them”
(Rodrigues). This quote from Eunice tells you that there were different choices in schooling.
Whether that be going for half a day or a full day. These prepared her for the ability to make her
own decisions on the kind of work load and day to day practices that college to put on you as a
student.
Mostly everything that will make you a successful student starts in schooling. For Eunice
transitioning to a modern-day college campus was very different. She is used to a sit-down place
where she does her work and has her classes every day without changing from room to room.
Understanding that a lot of college and universities are very different from what a lot of students
are used to. For Eunice, this was very different for her. A quote from her saying “for the first
week I was lost, I have many different classes in many different buildings so it was a big
change” (Rodrigues). Every day to day is different. Monday, you may have classes there, then
Tuesday you may have class completely on the other side campus. While this doesn’t seem like a
huge problem, this can cause you to slowly stop going to your classes because the building is so
far away. Especially if you are not used to having to walk a lot, and keep changing classrooms
and buildings.
Throughout many different cultures there are many sports that dominant over other
sports. In the United States football is the pinnacle of sports and some people even teach it like a
religion. In Brazil and along with many other countries soccer is their religion. Soccer is
everything to people. Eunice not so much. She grew up not knowing much about soccer, but her
brother loves football and has taught her a lot about it. Eunice says, “With American football you
want to be with people and if your team loses it isn’t that big of a deal, but in Brazil when the
soccer team loses it is all out war.” (Rodrigues) this quote shows you the differences between
these two sports. People take soccer like a religion, and will do anything to help their team win.
International soccer is possibly one the craziest and most exciting moments in the world. Brazil
is one of the best of international soccer teams in the world, and when the Olympics came to Rio
Eunice was excited to watch. Being from Rio she was only a few minutes from Olympic park
and was able to go to a lot of the events. Brazil was a front runner for gold in soccer that year,
and they ended up winning it all in their home country, so you could say it was pretty crazy.
Knowing that everywhere you go there are different cultures that like different things, so coming
to the United States soccer isn’t a very big sport while football, baseball, and basketball
There are so many lessons, abilities, and material that go into making a good student. Not
every student is perfect, and they have their flaws. Eunice Mendes Rodrigues Farias Mello a civil
engineering major at the University of Alabama is a light that can help other students who are or
are wanting to move abroad and study at a United States University. Anywhere you come from
you will have probably have grown up with something different from Eunice or the American
schooling, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t ready. If you have these abilities that Eunice does,
and you are passionate about what you do there will be nothing that stops from what you want to
do.
Learning isn’t always found from a book or teacher. You can learn so many different
things from the people that you around. When I interviewed Eunice, I wasn’t sure how it was
going to go. I get nervous into people that I am meeting for the first time. Throughout the talk
that we had I was able to learn valuable things not just about her, but about life outside the
United States. I have been lucky to travel the world with my family. We have been many places
in the world and I feel I have a strong sense of life outside the country. But Eunice gave me great
insight to her life individually and how life in Rio effected and her life in Tuscaloosa.
Doing a profile on someone helps with fears. Fearing failure in situations can tarnish your
work and make the experience not worthwhile. Conquering those fears and doing what scares is
something that is always a positive. You may run into to someone that is dealing with the same
problems you are and you two may be able to help each other. Listing to each other and hearing
what they have to say is something that is very valuable in life today.
Works Cited
Defavari, Rafael. “Rio De Janeiro Population 2019.” Rio De Janeiro Population 2019
janeiro-population/.