INTERNATIONAL WEEK: engaging with community
From August 29th to September 1st, the PUCPR International team held its IX edition of the “International Week”. As the event happens annually, we had it at our main Campus in Curitiba-Brazil. The event was also broadcasted on Youtube by the local and international community.
Traditionally, PUCPR promotes two main events throughout International Week. For starters, we have Exchange Week, which mainly focuses on students and the Symposium on Internationalization (SPIn) with a more academic approach. The Exchange Week intends to present all the international experiences offered to our students. It provides a moment of interaction with our exchange students, making it possible to chat and share experiences between former exchange students. The event program consisted of roundtables about students’ experiences during their lives abroad, presentations on the opportunities for double degrees, and other programs such as Summer Institute and Global Classes, besides international research scholarship opportunities.
On August 31st, our international students had the chance to present their home institution and share a glimpse of their home country and culture. And for the very first time, the students had a competition for “The Best Brigadeiro Chef”; the contest was part of their Portuguese Language Class evaluation. They came up in different teams and had to prepare Brigadeiros. Still, the catch was for them to add an extra “secret” ingredient to the original recipe of the Brazilian treat. The winners received an award as recognition for their best efforts.
As for the IX Symposium on Internationalization (SPIn), the chosen theme, “Internationalization and Civic Engagement,” promoted the discussion on universities’ role in social engagement issues and the search for solutions to local and global problems. The event program outlines lectures and panels with researchers and experts for the Internationalization of Higher Education. Even from afar, we had the honor to have as the keynote speaker Dr. Uwe Brandenburg, a powerhouse on the subject. Dr. Brandenburg is the Managing Director for the Global Impact Institute, an organization dedicated to studying and researching the global social impacts of the internationalization of higher education institutions.
PUCPR is committed to its internationalization and takes it as one of its main priorities. Therefore, our goal and responsibility are to spread all the opportunities offered to internationalize their academic training among our community.
