The Science Without Borders (SWB) scholarship program, funded primarily by the Government of Brazil, aims to send 101,000 Brazilian students to study internationally by 2015. In the 2012–13 academic year, the University of Victoria has welcomed 19 senior undergraduate students from Brazilian universities to study and work for a period of one year.

The students are engaged in English language classes as well as academic courses in their fields of study. Each student’s scholarship to UVic also allows for a 4-month co-op work term with a Canadian employer. With the help of staff from the Co-operative Education Program and Career Services (Co-op and Career), several students have already been placed for summer co-op work terms—from research opportunities with UVic professors to industry positions in Greater Victoria.

"Having access to resources such as résumé and cover letter workshops, mock interviews and co-op coordinator assistance made me feel confident when applying for jobs,” says Juliana Dutra, a Brazilian psychology student recently placed at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. “The knowledge I acquired will be useful when I go back to Brazil."

Here on campus, Brazilian students will assist professors in a range of disciplines this summer. Chemistry student Thaisa Correa de Sousa will be working in the laboratory of Dr. Alexandre Brolo, focusing on chemical synthesis and working with RAMAN spectroscopy. In the Department of Psychology, Victor Duran will assist Dr. Mauricio Garcia-Barrera to apply Item Response Theory analysis to some of the items on his Executive Functions testing battery, the INTERACT. In the Department of Engineering, Raphael de Lima Mendes will be assisting Dr. Xiaodai Dong with an android application that monitors a portable electrocardiogram using Bluetooth technology.

“The support from the international office and especially the co-op office was fundamental to prepare me to study and find a co-op job here in Canada,” says Mendes. “Professor Dr. Xiaodai Dong’s research and my own objectives are convergent, so I am really looking forward to working this summer at UVic.”

Off campus, earth and ocean sciences student Isabela Coutinho will be working with Purple Rock Inc., a Victoria-based geological information management company founded by UVic alumna Nicole Barlow. "I'm eager to start my work term,” says Coutinho. “It's going to be an incredible learning experience—not only putting in motion all I've learned so far, but also getting to see what Canada's geology is all about!"

To learn more about Science Without Borders or to hire a Brazilian student to help with your research this summer, please contact Co-op and Career international coordinator Karima Ramji at ramjik@uvic.ca or 250-721-6076.

PICTURED, L–R: Isabela Coutinho, Raphael de Lima Mendes, Selen Sousa, Juliana Silva and Victor Riccio Duran are five of the 19 SWB students currently attending UVic.