Partnerships – Precious Connections
Take a look on what happened during the VII SPIn 2020
On August 24, 25 and 25, PUCPR International held the VII Symposium PUCPR on Internationalization (SPIn) 2020, under the theme “Partnerships – precious connections”. The event was broadcast on Youtube to the local and international community and incorporated several innovative initiatives.
The symposium was opened by the Rector of PUCPR, Prof. Waldemiro Gremski, and by Prof. Paula Trevilatto, Pro-Rector for Graduate Programs, Research and Innovation, who highlighted PUCPR international initiatives and future perspectives on internationalization. The opening ceremony was followed by the traditional PUCPR International annual report, this year presented as an informal conversation between director prof. Marcelo T. Mira, associate director Prof. Daniel Hachem and coordinators Lídia Kovalski; and Viviane Martins.
The second session of VII SPIn was hosted by Prof. Paulo Mussi (PUCPR), and the speakers Marcello Fantoni from Kent State University (United States); Jaewoo Shim from Dankook University (South Korea); Nancy Hellerud from Webster University (United States) and Prof. Marcelo T. Mira from PUCPR (Brazil) discussed on how an established partnership went further and resulted on a shared international campus. The speakers described how the idea of a shared campus in Florence (Italy) came up and what were the steps to make it happen; what kind of programs these institutions are offering there and which are the future projects they are planning to launch.
On the second day of the VII SPIn, Prof. Marcelo T. Mira hosted an exciting conversation between Rosario Díaz Domínguez from UANDES (Chile); Marisol Achach Solís from ANÁHUAC-Mayab (Mexico); Carla Cassol da Silva from PUCRS (Brazil) and Claudia Sampel, from BSB (France), about their virtual mobility initiatives and other online international education programs, and reported on how the pandemic situation enhanced challenges and opportunities on the international offices’ efforts.
The second session was hosted by Ms. Viviane Martins, PUCPR International Coordinator for International Projects and the speakers were PUCPR International Agents: Prof. Carlos Fontanini (Business School), Prof. Luciana Dias (Law School) and Prof. Cynthia Bordin (School of Life Sciences). The IAs presented what these PUCPR Schools have been doing to boost a more internationalized environment, as well as described how mobility programs and international cooperation were established and which difficulties were and still are faced.
On the first session of the last day, Prof. Daniel Hachem moderated a very open and sometimes emotional conversation between students Roberto Israel Cruz from UNAM (Mexico); Lorea Larrañaga from Lyon 2 (France); Gelila Reta from Virginia Tech (United States); Gabriel Becchi from PUCPR; and Raul Marcondes from PUCPR. The goal of the session – totally achieved! – was to gather talented students from all over the world to talk about their perspectives of international partnerships and share their experiences as incoming and outgoing PUCPR exchange students.
The VII SPIn 2020 ended with a panel discussion on the role of international offices with key representatives from Kent State University (United States), Universidade Católica Portuguesa (Portugal) and PUCPR, and it was hosted by Prof. Luciana Drimel Dias (PUCPR International Agent). Besides giving an introduction of the international offices’ structure and role at the university, Directors Sarah Malcolm, Magda Ferro and Marcelo Mira discussed on how cooperation is the key on a challenging environment, which mobility programs are essential to boost higher education quality, and which risks could be encountered on the current situation the world is facing.
The VII SPIn took advantage of an entirely online format to involve and reach out to the local and international community of international educators; also, the on-line platform proved to be the ideal media for informal, relaxed yet intense and informative conversation between experts that definitely is here to stay.
Check out the sessions on the PUCPR official Youtube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/canalpucproficial
Thank you and see you all next year!
