Global Citizens - Reflection...

The expectation was enormous in the beginning, October of 2002. I can remember the anxiety I felt the first time I entered the classroom and met the students, who also seemed very anxious. The novelty to me was meeting teenagers from the outskirts of Recife. Everything was novel to them: ABA with its fancy facilities, friendly people in the hallways and the amazing coffee machine. Very soon we became more at ease, despite the challenges we faced such as the acquaintance between the students and employees and the execution of the library rules.

But the challenge had as its soundtrack, the song “You are my Sunshine”, which warmed us, gave us strength and will to go on. In the following year, the project took off and the students started having English, computer and special classes. What really caught my attention was the student’s motivation. They were always willing to learn more and earnestly involved with the activities.

I feel that the learning of a foreign language was somewhat impaired due to the shortcomings of the public school system in Brazil. But in the face of the great motivation of the students, progress is just a matter of time and dedication. In the present stage of the project, I believe we took a huge qualitative step. Now, all students have an e-mail and surf the internet. Aba´s employees seem to have adopted the project with great satisfaction. Furthermore, the discussion on the power of media and how to sort out what to consume in the face of an overload of information during the media education classes have been very exciting. I hope that the project contributes to the enrichment of the student’s lives. And that they are enchanted, as Paulo Freire would say, with the possibility...of dreaming and becoming whatever they desire.

Juliana Vilar
(03/25/04)