INSPER NEWS

Insper staff and professors offered a program of welcoming activities introducing the school to first-years admitted in the first semester of 2021

Students admitted to Insper’s Undergraduate Programs through Brazil’s entrance examination (the Vestibular) for the first-semester of 2021 joined our school via a Welcome Week. The initiative promoted online events between February 8 and 12. The activities were conducted by the school’s administrative and teaching teams for new students to become acquainted with the processes and learning possibilities at Insper.

At the week’s opening, a Welcome Lecture was held by Prof. Marcos Lisboa, President of Insper, and Prof. Guilherme Martins, Dean of Undergraduate Programs. The event was attended by coordinators of all the school’s Undergraduate Programs.

Marcos Lisboa emphasized the Insper Undergraduate Programs’ interdisciplinarity and the school’s vocation to develop professionals attentive to society’s frequent changes. “Despite the multiplicity of topics, there are shared tools for professional practice in all Insper’s fields of education. Technologies advance, and techniques change. So, in addition to learning the tools, it is essential to learn how to learn, be open and always ready to learn more and change the paradigms of what you already know”.

According to Guilherme Martins, Insper’s Undergraduate Programs have a logic designed for a complete education, with an infrastructure and a curriculum in line with everything that happens in the world. “You are joining a program that, when you will be about to leave it, the program will be even better. The market is dynamic, and Insper follows this,” Guilherme stressed.

Program structure

After the opening presentation, Insper’s program coordinators were invited to present the main aspects and differentials of our Undergraduate Programs, emphasizing the central learning moments at Insper. They are divided into Basic Cycle, Specific Cycle, and Electives for Professional Accomplishment.

Within that path, students can choose Integrated Tracks. They allow for students to explore more specific interests in the programs’ first semesters already. Among the tracks offered by Insper are Entrepreneurship, Data Science, Public policy and Administration, Advanced Economics, and Advanced Mathematics.

Challenging scenarios

In 2020, Insper opened registrations for the first entrance exam for its brand new Undergraduate Program in Law. At the February 8 meeting, Prof. Rafael Bellem, Coordinator of the Program, introduced himself to the students of the first class. “In the midst of a challenging year, Insper decided to launch a transformative program, aiming to develop professionals of the future who can work towards the transformation of Brazil.”

Also, Rafael pointed out the challenge of maintaining education quality amid the new coronavirus pandemic. Insper has paid special attention to health protocols, proposing innovative technical solutions to keep its students, professors, and staff members safe and the operations of all its programs going. You can access our return protocol by clicking here.

The first day also saw a talk on the topic, “I joined Insper, what now?” It involved first-years and Insper’s International, MultiInsper, and Career Center teams. There was also a chat with students’ families, conducted by Marcos Lisboa and Guilherme Martins.

Inaugural Lectures

On the second day of activities, February 9, we broadcasted Inaugural Lectures for all Undergraduate Programs. For those joining the Business Administration program, the meeting addressed Investments and Sustainability, discussing how countries and institutions prepare for the future. The guests were Renato Lulia, Director of the Itaú Unibanco group, Carolina da Costa, Partner at Mauá Capital, and Ricardo Humberto Rocha, Professor at Insper.

The Inaugural Lectures offered to new students of Economics discussed the practical applications of the learning brought by the program. With the topic being “After all, where do economists use what they learn in college?” the meeting had in attendance Insper alumna Betina Roxo, Chief Strategist and Content Director for investment platform Rico and Partner at XP Inc., Octávio Portolano, Portfolio Manager at Itaú Asset Management, and Prof. Juliana Inhasz, Coordinator of the Economics program at Insper.

The Law program had a meeting dedicated to introducing students to the field’s professional universe, the topic being “Lessons and challenges of legal careers.” It was conducted by Ana Paula Martinez, Partner at Levy & Salomão law firm and Insper’s Board member.

For future engineers, the Inaugural Lecture was dedicated to addressing the program’s main entrepreneurial characteristics. The Inaugural Lecture “The Engineer, the company, and the investors: What are the pieces of the puzzle in an engineering endeavor?” was held by Bento Koike, CEO of wind-turbine-blade manufacturer Tecsis, and the coordinators of the three Insper Engineering programs, Prof. Fábio Miranda (Computer Engineering), Prof. Frederico Barbieri (Mechanical Engineering), and Prof. Vinicius Licks (Mechatronic Engineering)

Discovering the student organizations

On February 10, our new students were able to attend the Student Organizations Fair. It provided the first contact with one of the most important parts of academic life: the student entities and extension projects. For increasing interactivity, the meetings worked in the form of a fair. They provided the possibility of circulating through conference rooms with each organization throughout the day. That was an important moment to interact with upper-level students and discover common interests.

The Welcome Week’s last day, February 12, was also targeted at the integration between new and upper-level students. It saw the Student Organization’s Hazing, in which all first-years filled out the “Cadastro dos Bixos” (“Fresher’s Registration,” in a free translation). They could also attend a virtual celebration and ask questions on other topics related to student life.

Webinars

Insper regularly carries out Webinars. They have the objective of bringing in evidence-based quality information and fundamentals for facing challenges and transforming our society. Three webinars were included in the Welcome Week program to place the new undergraduate students into our school’s universe and debate ideas proposed by it.

On Wednesday, February 10, morning, we broadcasted the Entrepreneurship at Insper webinar. In it, we addressed the different initiatives from our institution to foster its students’ entrepreneurial spirit. The conversation guests were Insper alumnus Heloy Rudge, Founding Partner of energy trading group Targus Energia; Rodrigo Toginini, CEO and Co-founder of financial services platform Conta Simples; Insper Professor Pedro Schaffa, Founding Partner of law firm SBAC Advogados; and Victor Macul, Professor and Coordinator of the Insper Center for Entrepreneurship.

On the same day, at 6 p.m., we held the virtual seminar Changes in the consumer market: Trends, technologies, and challenges. It was conducted by Fred Trajano, CEO of Brazilian retail company Magazine Luiza, and Insper professors Vinícius Picanço and Tatiana Iwai.

On Thursday, February 11, freshers were invited to attend the Governance, Technology, and Inclusion webinar. The meeting was held in English and had as special guest Nneka Abulokwe, CEO of MicroMax Consulting. It was led by Insper’s Dean of Academic Affairs, Prof. Irineu Gianesi, and Insper Professor Guilherme Fowler.

Check out all the activities of Insper’s Welcome Week