Our first stop in Brazil was São Leopoldo in Rio Grande do Sul. It is a small city outside the state capital, Porto Alegre. We would spend a week there before moving to the second part of the program at Foz do Iguaçu.
In São Leopoldo, we visited many different companies and learned about their products and sustainability efforts. Some examples include visits to Certaja Energy to learn about Brazil’s energy grid, and to Higra to learn about water management and energy efficiency. We also spent a lot of time at the University of Unisinios, where we toured their photovoltaic plants, labs, and clean rooms. We also met students and professors who helped to show us around on our visits.
During our time in São Leopoldo, we did more than just go to company visits. We had many fun cultural activities that helped to immerse us in Brazilian culture. We went on tours of the city to visit historical sights, went to street markets to shop with the locals, and also to a national park. One of the things that I enjoyed the most was when a professor from Unisinos invited us to a barbecue and cooked for all of us. He cooked for our whole group as well as for some other Unisinos students who were there.
My favorite thing that we did while in São Leopoldo actually happened in the capital city of Porto Alegre, around 40 minutes away. We were able to get tickets to go to a soccer game between Gremio and Flamengo. I had already been to a Brazilian soccer game before and was extremely excited to go again. Flamengo is my favorite team in the Brazilian league, so as soon as I heard they were coming to play in Porto Alegre, I knew that I had to go. Flamengo won, and after the game we were able to eat outside the stadium with the rest of the fans, making it an awesome experience.
São Leopoldo was a great experience. It had a great balance between learning about the technical and professional side of Brazil, as well as the different cultures.
Swanson School of Engineering 