Secretaria de Relações Internacionais | Office of International Relations

The Office of International Relations (SINTER) held a Welcome Session, on 22 August, for international students arriving at UFSC for the second semester of 2022. The session took place at the Rectorate Building Auditorium, on the Trindade Campus, in Florianópolis. The event aimed to broaden the reception to the entire international student community at UFSC. Thus, in addition to the exchange students, the event was also targeted at all degree-seeking international students on campus.

From left to right: Prof. Dilceane Carraro, Prof. Irineu Manoel de Souza, Prof. Joana Célia dos Passos and Fernanda Leal.

UFSC community gathered at the Rectorate Building Auditorium to welcome international students.

During the opening of the session, the Rector Prof. Irineu Manoel de Souza, the Vice-Rector Prof. Joana Célia dos Passos, the Prorector for Undergraduate Students and Basic Education (PROGRAD) Prof. Dilceane Carraro and the Director of International Relations Fernanda Leal welcomed the students. The event was also attended by prorectors, secretaries, school deans and program coordinators, as well as internationalization agents and study buddies of the international students.

The schedule comprised two artistic presentations: a presentation of Samba no pé by the Physical Education student Vanderlan da Costa Junior, who is a scholarship holder in the Projeto Práticas Corporais [Body Practices Project] of the School of Sports (CDS) at UFSC; and a presentation by the Grupo de Capoeira Angola Ajagunã de Palmares. The event also included a message from the “Sustainable UFSC Little Witch”, from the Environmental Management Coordination Office, represented by the Performing Arts student Anna Luísa Pacheco.

The reception ended with a capoeira performance in the Rectorate Building  Hall.

The event opened with a presentation of Samba no pé.

The “Sustainable UFSC Little Witch” guided the students on ecological practices at the university.

The event also encompassed the presentation of SINTER and its team to the newcomers by the Director of International Relations, Fernanda Leal; general information about the period of mobility at UFSC by the staff member responsible for the Incoming Exchange Program, Natália Roth; in addition to information about the extracurricular Portuguese as a Foreign Language course, by professors Rosane Silveira and Laura Viana from the Portuguese as a Foreign Language Research and Teaching Center (NUPLE); and information about the outreach activities for the community at the School of Sports (CDS) by professor Patrícia Luiza Bremer Boaventura Justo da Silva.

This semester, UFSC welcomes 115 exchange students from 17 countries around the world, of which 100 through the Incoming Exchange Program (Bilateral Agreements) and 15 through the Escala Estudiantes de Grado of the Asociación de Universidades Grupo Montevideo [Association of Montevideo Group Universities] (AUGM). UFSC also welcomes four students from Venezuela, three from Haiti and one from Guinea-Bissau through the admission policy for refugees, asylum seekers and humanitarian visa holders established in 2022.

Moreover, this semester 85 students from the Programa Estudante-Convênio de Graduação (PEC-G) are enrolled at UFSC: 50 from the African continent, 34 from America and one from Asia. The PEC-G is a program of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE) and the Ministry of Education (MEC) in the area of international educational cooperation, in which UFSC has been participating since 1970.

The Uruguayan Maria Belén Tasende Figueroa, 23 years old, studies Dentistry at the Universidad de la República (UDELAR, Uruguay) and applied to the AUGM Escala Estudiantes de Grado program to undertake an exchange program at UFSC. “I wanted to come to Brazil and I found UFSC, I have learned that it is one of the best universities in the country and thought: why not?” recalls the student. She is one of the 15 students from Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay that came through the AUGM mobility program. “I hope to grow as a person and as a professional. Also, I hope I can take things that I learn here to Uruguay”, affirms Maria.

The student Maria Belén came from Uruguay through the AUGM mobility program.

The countries of the 100 students UFSC is receiving this semester through the  Incoming Exchange Program are from Canada, United States of America, Mexico, Colombia, England, Germany, France, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Italy.

The German student Felicitas von Braunmühl, 24 years old, came from the Technische Universität München to study Civil Engineering at UFSC. She lived in São Paulo for three years as a child, and decided to take the exchange opportunity to come back to Brazil. “I wanted to learn Portuguese again and I chose to come to Floripa because it is one of the most beautiful and safest cities [in Brazil]”, explains the student. “I hope to learn the language, meet new people, experience the culture of Brazil and do something completely different from what I have done in the past semesters”.

Felicitas has the student Maria Clara Castro Valle, 20 years old, as her study buddy through the SINTER’s Study Buddy Program. Maria studies Automation and Control Engineering at UFSC and heard about the program through SINTER’s Instagram account. “I thought it was a very nice opportunity to talk to people from other countries, especially for this exchange of experiences and cultures”, she says. The Study Buddy Program was created many years ago to help international students with the adaptation to the university and life in Florianópolis, in addition to providing UFSC students the opportunity to get in contact with young people from all over the world. SINTER is responsible for the program since the registration of interested UFSC students to the their allocation to exchange students.

On the left, the exchange student Felicitas next to her study buddy, Maria Clara.

You can follow SINTER’s programs and activities through our website and social media.