This past week, I had the opportunity to attend Moving the Cities at Unisinos in São Leopoldo, Brazil. Prior to leaving for Brazil, I had very little idea of what to expect out of our limited time. I knew it was an international competition based on the UN’s 17 Goals for Sustainability. I also knew that I loved my previous experience studying abroad and that I desperately wanted to go to Brazil.
The first two full days of the trip involved learning about and touring two different Brazilian universities, Unisinos and PUCRS. The most notable aspect of Brazilian universities had to be their relationship with outside companies. The universities and companies have a symbiotic relationship where the companies are located on the campus. This results in a significant number of companies, mostly tech-based, all centered so close to where the learning is happening. While it was exciting to see these companies and universities, it was more exciting to build friendships with not only the students from the 6 different universities involved but also the students from Pitt that I had yet to truly get to know.
Over the last three days, we were split into teams and began the competition. We were lucky enough to do this in the SAP Lab located on Unisinos campus. My team consisted of Juliana, a public health major from Unisinos in Brazil, and Emilie, a chemical engineering student from the University of Münster in Germany (both pictured above). All teams were challenged to develop a 3-minute business pitch for a start-up focused on One Health, the idea that plant, human, and animal health are interconnected. We ended up proposing a temporary water filtration system utilizing used shipping containers that connects to a town’s water plant to keep the area supplied while dealing with flood cleanup. More important than our idea itself was the chance to spend those 3 days building a relationship and getting to know people from different cultures and understanding what mattered to them. We were shocked when they announced that we placed 2nd out of 15 teams. While my post’s title is a joke and I know 2nd is not 1st, I still feel like the relationships I built during my time in Brazil are the real prize of the competition.
