Ohio State Brazil Gateway News

Happy Holidays from the Brazil Gateway Team

2017 was a great year for Ohio State in Brazil: we started this newsletter in March! Our team visited the campus in February and got in touch with many Brazilians pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies as well as post-doctoral research. This year, Design Matters Education Abroad also had its successful debut in São Paulo and the Brazil Gateway team participated in two major conferences on international higher education and important recruiting tours such as The MBA Tour and The EducationUSA LL.M Tour. Other major happenings included, changing the office location (come and visit us), fostering the partnership between Moritz College of Law and the University of Brasilia (UnB).

At the Brazil Gateway, we welcomed 75 students to Brazil for research, internships and education abroad programs, including students from Fisher College's Global Applied Projects Program; about 50 faculty came to Brazil for conferences, congresses, research, visits, including leadership from the Fisher College of Business and the Global One Health initiative. We held seven alumni events, including a football game watch! We supported BRASA's (Brazilian Students Association) comeback at Ohio State and launched two executive programs (Women on Boards and Industry 4.0). With our newsletters, we shared the most inspiring stories of Brazilians at Ohio State and Ohio State Buckeyes in Brazil and other incredible opportunities.

Now, we would like to thank our Brazilian and Buckeye communities in Brazil and on campus, students, faculty, partners and everyone interested in learning more about and engaging with Ohio State and Brazil.

We wish you all a merry holiday season and a wonderful new year. Let's do great things together in 2018!

Brazilian Participation at the 2017 International Scholar Research Exposition

The 12th Annual International Scholar Research Exposition was held on November 17. Current international J-1 visiting scholars to The Ohio State University were invited to submit research summaries and from those, 37 finalists were asked to create research posters for display.

Patricia Alves De Castro Silva, post-doctoral in the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Ribeirão Preto at the University of São Paulo (FCFRP-USP), doing research in plant pathology with Professor Thomas K. Mitchell presented about the functional characterization of the bZIP ZipD transcription factor from Aspergillus fumigatus.

"The International Scholar Research Exposition, which has been held since 2006, brings together works of researchers from different countries, in different areas, and graces the scholar visitors with a beautiful and warm ceremony to exhibit their research," said Alves De Castro Silva. "It's amazing how Ohio State cares about its visitors and recognizes their work, trying to promote cross-cultural interactions and experiences, aiming to gather all visitors to the Ohio State community in many different ways."

Of the 37 researchers, the majority was from countries where Ohio State has its Global Gateways with eight scholars from China, six from India and four from Brazil.

Beatriz Schmidt, a PhD candidate at the Psychology Department of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), presented her research on coparenting and childcare arrangements, with Professor Sarah Schoppe-Sullivan as a mentor.

"Participating in the International Scholar Research Exposition was awesome!" said Schimdt. "I go to meet other researchers from different countries, and present some preliminary results of my Ph.D. dissertation. I am very grateful to The Ohio State University for this productive and enjoyable event, as well as to my advisors in the United States and Brazil, coauthors of the presented poster, for this collaborative work."

Two other Brazilian researchers presented posters at the exposition: Luisa Ferrari from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Amanda Lima Vilela from the Department of Horticulture and Crop Science.

The posters will be on display on the first and second floor of Bricker Hall, near the Office of the Vice President of Research during the month of December 2017 and summaries of the research can be found online.

Brazilian Technical Commission to the Ohio Program

A technical commission of Brazilian university professors, company and government agencies related to agronomy visited Ohio State in October.

The group met with Rattan Lal, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner and professor of soil science at the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at Ohio State. They were looking to exchange knowledge, and the visit was a direct result of Lal's past trip to Brazil, when he learned about Mato Grosso's agricultural capacities and sustainability projects.

There were representatives from Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), Federation of Agriculture and Livestock of Mato Grosso (FAMATO), Teaching and Training Service (SENAR), Statistics and Economic Institute (IMEA) and Association of Soy and Corn Productors of Mato Grosso (Aprosoja).

Marcos da Rosa, FAMATO member, mentioned that the merit of the visit was to continue previous contacts with universities that were chosen because of their renowned work in creating techniques that revolutionized farming.

Mike Chrisman, assistant Director at the Ohio Program shared the news about the visit with the Brazil Gateway team and explained the group was especially interested in no-tillage production of soybeans.

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships 2018 - 2019

The Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) at Ohio State is seeking applications for fellowships for academic year 2018 - 2019 under the U.S. Department of Education's Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship program.

FLAS Fellowships assist meritorious undergraduate and graduate students interested in undergoing training in modern foreign languages and related area or international studies.

The deadline for application submission is Thursday, February 1, 2018, 4:30 p.m. EST. All applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Read the full details online .

Funding Opportunity to Study in Brazil - Boren Awards

Application is now open for Boren Awards for students to study languages and research in Latin America.

Boren Awards fund U.S. undergraduate and graduate language study and research abroad in world regions critical to U.S. national interests (including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America and the Middle East). Boren Awards promote longer-term linguistic and cultural immersion overseas and are available to applicants in most fields of study.

Boren Awards will give preference to applicants planning to study in the Latin and South American countries of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela. There is also a stronger preference for study of the Portuguese or Haitian languages, for which there is no minimum proficiency requirement. Preference is also given to students who are willing to study abroad for longer periods of time, and those who are highly motivated to work in the federal government following graduation.

The Boren Scholarships provide up to $20,000 for undergraduate students for language-focused study abroad. The Boren Fellowships provide up to $30,000 for graduate students to fund language study, graduate-level research and academic internships abroad.

Applicants are encouraged to contact their Boren Awards campus representatives, listed in a directory on the website, for institution-specific guidance. They may also contact Boren Awards staff directly at 1-800-618-NSEP or boren@iie.org. Visit the website for more information.

The deadline for graduate students is January 30 and for undergraduate students is February 8.

Global Perspectives: Ivan Susin Pires

Pires is an Ohio State engineering undergraduate student who participated at The University of São Paulo's International Symposium of Undergraduate Research (SIICUSP).

This year, SIICUSP celebrated its 25th year. This two-day conference brings people from all over Brazil to a single place. Yet, not only Brazilians participate. Three other universities from out of Brazil were included: Ohio State, Rutgers University (New Jersey) and Humbolt University of Berlin (Berlin-Germany). These three universities have partnerships and collaborations with University of São Paulo. Also, this year, I was one of the Ohio State students selected to present my research at SIICUSP.

Born and raised in Brazil, it was an amazing opportunity for me to go back to my home country and experience and see the research life from people over there. The conference had research from various areas. Even our group of Ohio State students presented research from all fields. The poster sessions allowed students to share their research with a diverse group of people and professors.

Overall, the poster sessions were very interesting and engaging. Additionally, the speakers and panels were great sessions to show to prospective researchers and scientists that life has set-backs and challenges for everyone and that overcoming those are what leads to success in life. The group from Ohio State was really fun, making daily activities exciting and cheerful. SIICUSP was an amazing experience that I would definitely recommend and encourage others to participate in; not only important academically, but provides interesting life perspectives and even some new friends.