What it Takes to Make it

Moving to the United States and going to school isn’t something that everyone is cut out

for. There are a lot of certain things that you need to know before you can come over and have

any type of American schooling. Being aware of these things are very important because the last

thing you want is to come to the US and it be too much. Certain lessons and things that are

important to being a successful student coming from a different country are hard to learn and

take practice. It is very hard to wake up and say I am going to go to the United States and be a

student. You must be able to speak and understand English, have the mental and physical ability

to live far away from your family in a foreign country, and there are many more. There are

materials that you need to know that just aren’t something that would help you with your

academics. The United States government is involved also. You must require a visa to enter and

be called a student, and you must pretty wealthy because international students are not allowed to

receive financial aid. These are certain things that you need to understand before coming to the

US to become a student. Eunice has all of these mastered. If you were to meet her you wouldn’t

even know she was from Brazil. She is the perfect student to come to the United States and be

very successful.

Eunice Mendes Rodrigues Farias Mello is a female from Rio de Janeiro. She was born

and raised in Rio and is now a student at the University of Alabama majoring in Civil

Engineering. Eunice is a very interesting person to talk to. She comes from a culture that is very

different from traditional cultural in the United States. A culture surrounded by family, religion,

and you can never forget soccer. “Rio is home to a population of around 6.45 million people”

(Defavari 1). This is a lot of people in such a city, so you could say there are a bunch different

types of people in Brazil.

 Eunice all her life grew up in Rio. Rio is very different than the United States. In Rio,

you have many different cultures all thrown into a small mixing pot. Not to say that United

States does not have different cultures, but in Rio you can walk down a street and you will hear

English, Spanish, Chinese, Latin, many different languages that you wouldn’t hear walking down

a street say in Hershey Pennsylvania. Eunice says, “People in Rio are genuinely really nice and

will help you with mostly everything that you need help with so culturally they are very

different, but here in Alabama mostly everyone that I have met is very nice.” I responded with

“it’s the southern hospitality because people are very nice in the south but the north not so

much.” This so different from the United States in the northern states where mostly everyone you

run into is probably not going to be very nice. Eunice throughout her life learned English. If you

met her you would probably think she grew up in the United States because her English is

perfect, but how she learned it is pretty mesmerizing. Brazil is known for its cultural diversity

especially Rio. Growing up there she heard many different languages. This is how she learned

English so well, and so fast. Her mother also spoke to her in English throughout her life. So, she

was able to learn English outside and inside her household which is pretty rare to see. Rio isn’t

the safest place in the world and growing up in Rio can always be hard. Eunice says, “there are

certain places in Rio that are very dangerous, but if you know where you are and you know

where not to go it isn’t that dangerous, and mostly the people that get robbed are the native

people who know they are traveling and visiting Rio.” This is very similar to life here in the

United States because there are cities that aren’t safe and people tend to stay away from the bad

areas, but people who aren’t aware of this are people that are more likely to get robbed. These

valuable lessons that Eunice was taught during her childhood that carry over to her life her in the

United States.
 Growing up and going through school might be a little different than what you are

thinking. Eunice went through elementary and middle school and moved to High School. While

this doesn’t seem too much different, High School in Rio is only three years instead of four.

Schooling Brazil was different because you aren’t allowed to choose your own classes. A quote

from Eunice saying, “It’s funny because people say I have never taken chemistry before, but I

am over here having to take all the time.” (Rodrigues) That quote from her shows the difference

between schooling in Brazil and in the United States. Eunice did not go to regular High School.

She went to a technical school. These kinds of schools are popular in the United States with them

being four years of schooling, and it’s also the same in Brazil. Eunice went to High School for

four years. Technical Schools are schools where kids go to learn a skill for a job they want to do

when they are older. These skills could be electrical, agriculture, architecture, etc. Going to

technical school really helped and prepared her the road ahead traveling far from home and being

a civil engineering major. Knowing what you love to do and what makes you the most happy and

comfortable is something that you will only benefit from in the long run when you are at college.

Becoming aware of what you want to do before coming to study in the United States is a huge

deal. Eunice was able to go to a technical school for her high school diploma, and that prepared

her for the work that she would be receiving in college. The last thing Eunice would have wanted

is to come to the United States and end up disliking what she was doing, and that would have

ultimately led to her doing not so well in school. Then it would end up for her having to go back

to Brazil.

There were many parts of technical school that prepared her for the college world in the

United States. Many days their hours of schooling we very different from what we are used to in

public and private schooling. “We only have classes from like 7:30 to 12, so many we wouldn’t
have lunch, but if we did it would be called integral.” (Rodrigues). This quote tells you the

certain material and the day to day practices that prepared her. Have short schedules and no

lunch really prepared her mentally and physically for her path to college. The time period of

classes closely reflect what schedules can look like in college, and how sped up classes can be in

those short time periods. The no lunch isn’t out of spite it is just how the schedules line up and

there is no need to serve lunch. This doesn’t seem like much, but coming from a public and

private high school where lunches are given to you can mixed people up a little bit. “Integral is

where most people choose to go, because the parents don’t have to take care of them”

(Rodrigues). This quote from Eunice tells you that there were different choices in schooling.

Whether that be going for half a day or a full day. These prepared her for the ability to make her

own decisions on the kind of work load and day to day practices that college to put on you as a

student.

Mostly everything that will make you a successful student starts in schooling. For Eunice

transitioning to a modern-day college campus was very different. She is used to a sit-down place

where she does her work and has her classes every day without changing from room to room.

Understanding that a lot of college and universities are very different from what a lot of students

are used to. For Eunice, this was very different for her. A quote from her saying “for the first

week I was lost, I have many different classes in many different buildings so it was a big

change” (Rodrigues). Every day to day is different. Monday, you may have classes there, then

Tuesday you may have class completely on the other side campus. While this doesn’t seem like a

huge problem, this can cause you to slowly stop going to your classes because the building is so

far away. Especially if you are not used to having to walk a lot, and keep changing classrooms

and buildings.
 Throughout many different cultures there are many sports that dominant over other

sports. In the United States football is the pinnacle of sports and some people even teach it like a

religion. In Brazil and along with many other countries soccer is their religion. Soccer is

everything to people. Eunice not so much. She grew up not knowing much about soccer, but her

brother loves football and has taught her a lot about it. Eunice says, “With American football you

want to be with people and if your team loses it isn’t that big of a deal, but in Brazil when the

soccer team loses it is all out war.” (Rodrigues) this quote shows you the differences between

these two sports. People take soccer like a religion, and will do anything to help their team win.

International soccer is possibly one the craziest and most exciting moments in the world. Brazil

is one of the best of international soccer teams in the world, and when the Olympics came to Rio

Eunice was excited to watch. Being from Rio she was only a few minutes from Olympic park

and was able to go to a lot of the events. Brazil was a front runner for gold in soccer that year,

and they ended up winning it all in their home country, so you could say it was pretty crazy.

Knowing that everywhere you go there are different cultures that like different things, so coming

to the United States soccer isn’t a very big sport while football, baseball, and basketball

dominate the United States sports market.

There are so many lessons, abilities, and material that go into making a good student. Not

every student is perfect, and they have their flaws. Eunice Mendes Rodrigues Farias Mello a civil

engineering major at the University of Alabama is a light that can help other students who are or

are wanting to move abroad and study at a United States University. Anywhere you come from

you will have probably have grown up with something different from Eunice or the American

schooling, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t ready. If you have these abilities that Eunice does,
and you are passionate about what you do there will be nothing that stops from what you want to

do.

Learning isn’t always found from a book or teacher. You can learn so many different

things from the people that you around. When I interviewed Eunice, I wasn’t sure how it was

going to go. I get nervous into people that I am meeting for the first time. Throughout the talk

that we had I was able to learn valuable things not just about her, but about life outside the

United States. I have been lucky to travel the world with my family. We have been many places

in the world and I feel I have a strong sense of life outside the country. But Eunice gave me great

insight to her life individually and how life in Rio effected and her life in Tuscaloosa.

Doing a profile on someone helps with fears. Fearing failure in situations can tarnish your

work and make the experience not worthwhile. Conquering those fears and doing what scares is

something that is always a positive. You may run into to someone that is dealing with the same

problems you are and you two may be able to help each other. Listing to each other and hearing

what they have to say is something that is very valuable in life today.
 Works Cited

Eunice, Mendes, Rodrigues, Farias, Mello. Personal Interview. 25 Oct 2019.

Defavari, Rafael. “Rio De Janeiro Population 2019.” Rio De Janeiro Population 2019

(Demographics, Maps, Graphs), 2018, worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/rio-de-

janeiro-population/.