1979

I was a recent graduate in journalism from PUC-Rio and just beginning my career as part of the “team” at Jornal do Brazil during its heyday. But I felt the need for more study. I was awarded a scholarship from the Inter American Press Association, and, with extra money from my father, I happily moved forward to take on the new challenge: graduate work at Columbia University’s School of Journalism in Missouri. It was an unforgettable year. Columbia is a university town nestled in the Midwest; everything revolves around the university where I attended, they say, the top journalism school in the world. In addition to classes and heavy reading, the course was intense since the daily newspaper, radio station, TV channel and the magazine were all produced by students under the supervision of professors.

I joined the special program for foreigners made up of several Chinese journalists -- just beginning to come out to see the world --, Africans from countries like Kenya and Zimbabwe, and a group of Latin Americans. I made lifelong friends and learned a lot. It wasn’t easy to meet the demands of school, with so many exams and papers in English. Without a doubt, besides opening horizons professionally, I also found new interests and job skills. The year was one of personal enrichment because of the opportunity to live among the many cultures represented there. It was a tremendous pleasure learning how to work out our differences: we IAPA scholarship students brought our unique life stories that were shared in a climate of camaraderie that until today I recall with fondness and miss.