[{"jcr:title":"Insper scholarship holder shares her experiences in the Summer Program in Chicago","cq:tags_0":"area-de-conhecimento:direito","cq:tags_1":"programas:graduacao","cq:tags_2":"tipos-de-conteudo:acontece-no-insper/internacional"},{"richText":"Law student Giovana Vilhena returned from the United States and has already left for an exchange program in France","authorDate":"26/09/2024 10h08","author":"Leandro Steiw","madeBy":"Por","tag":"area-de-conhecimento:direito","title":"Insper scholarship holder shares her experiences in the Summer Program in Chicago","variant":"imagecolor"},{"containerType":"containerTwo"},{"jcr:title":"Grid Container Section","layout":"responsiveGrid"},{"targetId":"compartilhar1","text":"Confira mais em:","tooltipText":"Link copiado com sucesso."},{"text":"The full scholarship student Giovana Vilhena Moreira, from Insper's undergraduate program in Law, expanded her international experience through the Summer Program at the University of Chicago, in the United States. From June to August, she participated in the Summer Institute in Social Research Methods. The program in social research methods is one of the scientific training opportunities available to Insper students through the partnership with the American university.   In 2023, Giovana had already been selected for a short program on risks and regulation of artificial intelligence, the Condor Camp—Paths to Change the Future of Humanity, which took her to Oxford, England. And, hardly had she returned to Brazil, she left again, this time for an exchange program between Insper and the University of Strasbourg, in France. From September to December, Giovana will be at the EM Strasbourg Business School, studying courses ranging from the economics of happiness to big data and artificial intelligence.   During the 10 weeks of the program in the United States, Giovana developed academic competencies that included everything from executing work starting from a research question to ways of obtaining funding, using technologies, designing a career in the field, and applying for a Master of Science. Professors and researchers also presented an overview of the studies developed at the University of Chicago. On Fridays, the activity was cultural and historical. The students visited museums to learn about material curation and research in museology.   The second part focused on the course on research design in applied social sciences, with classes and practical exercises on literature review, elements of the research question, and quantitative and qualitative approaches, among other topics. In the end, Giovana submitted a research schedule that will be useful at Insper in a year. "Besides showing me more about research skills, the course helped me set up a really cool structure to develop my pre-final project," she says, referring to the final project in Law.   The qualification in research is very much in line with Giovana's academic trajectory, a girl from the countryside of Minas Gerais who joined the first class of Insper's Law program in 2021. She works with the theme “antitrust law and labor market” in the Institutional Program of Scientific Initiation Scholarships (PIBIC), supervised by professor Paulo Furquim de Azevedo, coordinator of the Center for Regulation and Democracy at Insper.   Another advantage of the summer program, therefore, was working as a research assistant for political scientist and economist Benjamin Lessing, a professor at the University of Chicago who studies organized violence by armed groups such as drug cartels, prison gangs, and paramilitaries. For nearly two decades, Lessing has addressed issues related to organized crime in Brazil and Latin America. The assistance was shared with Marina Zalcberg Angulo, who was also in the group of five Insper students selected for this year's program.   The task consisted of developing evaluation activities and data analysis for the Ceará Public Security Secretariat. "Marina and I read Brazilian academic articles on violence to help professor Lessing understand some qualitative elements of Brazil that would provide clues for the quantitative research," says Giovana. "I greatly increased my knowledge in quantitative practices, which I am now applying to my research project at PIBIC, and which has added to everything I had already learned about research, jurisprudence, article writing, and delivering supervised practical activities as an Insper law student."   The 70 days of exchange provided unprecedented personal experiences for one of the first Insper scholarship holders to apply for and be selected for the summer program in Chicago. "It was better than I imagined," says Giovana. "I returned a fan of the United States. People told me that Chicago was incredible, and I really found a very lively city with various events happening simultaneously. With the program's people, we visited several interesting places and found a super-prepared infrastructure. I had access to things I hadn't had access to until that moment."   Giovana adds: "Another cool thing is that we got to visit the states of Indiana, where there's a national dune park, and Wisconsin. The university opened the opportunity to meet different people, even though it was summer and there weren't many people at the college. We could also enjoy the full infrastructure of the libraries. Something interesting during those days was that my friends and I participated in a paid but voluntary neuroscience research test conducted by the university."   The scholarship student observed a large city aura coexisting with many cultural elements. In the university neighborhood, it was possible to engage in outdoor activities and at the college gym. The boat tour on the Chicago River presented the history of local architecture. In Chinatown, the Chinese-origin area, Giovana tried new food flavors. She toured the nearly century-old Rockefeller Chapel on the university campus, where she played the organ and enjoyed a panoramic view from the top of the tower. In the neighborhoods, she tasted the famous deep-dish pizza and hot dog with pickles, encountered street festivals, and frequented bookstores and second-hand bookstores. "We came back loaded with books," she reveals excitedly.   When she moved to the capital of São Paulo, Giovana started to become interested in urbanism activities and participated in research at the Center for Cities Studies – Arq.Futuro Cities Lab in partnership with the São Paulo Museum of Art (MASP). "The summer program trip increased my awareness of the importance of each city element and greatly expanded my world perspective of understanding how a city should function," she says.   In Chicago, some peculiarities became evident. Again, with her colleague Marina, Giovana took a guided tour of the law school library and got to know the university's legal clinics. "These legal clinics are quite similar to those at Insper," she assures. "I have to give the highest praise for the quality of education in Chicago matching what we have at Insper. It's something I not only noticed individually but also from the comments of the Business Administration and Economics colleagues who were there with us."   Guidance for the future was not lacking. Giovana scheduled a call with a speaker from one of the program's events who had shown willingness to talk about careers. During the meeting, he gave tips on what to do after college and how to pursue specific job opportunities. "I would say that I am prepared both to continue in academia, doing an M.Sc. and Doctoral Program, and to pursue a career in research," she states.   From those weeks, the strength that the University of Chicago's name will leave on her resume, the differential in the legal field provided by quantitative data skills, the immersion in the English language, and the new friendships are other professional legacies cited by Giovana. "It was an experience that brought me a lot of lightness and showed me an interesting quality of life, of a standard that I think I hadn't yet experienced," she says. As she defines it herself, it was a "perfect summer."  "}]