Bem Vindo - Ipatinga
After a short flight from Belo Horizonte, we arrived in the beautiful city of Ipatinga (population, 240,000). It's nicknamed "Steel Valley" and is home to one of UNIPAC's 89 campuses, which we visited Wednesday evening.
UNIPAC officials and staff greeted us with refreshments, then gave us a tour of the campus. What a warm reception. We felt very welcome. The campus is beautiful, and different from both Surry and Caldwell Community Colleges - yet there were similarities. The multi-story central structure is built around an open commons area where students talked, huddled around laptops and studied.
We visited three classrooms - two psychology classrooms and an engineering class. We also visited several laboratories – including one for human anatomy and physiology where an instructor showed the group a cadaver. In each classroom, the group had to do individual introductions, which is great practice of our Portuguese. The students are doing a great job, and on several occasions received applause from the native speakers.
We ended the night late with pizza at a restaurant where the chef came out to great us, then allowed our students to come into the kitchen for a close up look. The learning, and fun, continues today in Ipitinga. More updates to come.
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