Scholarship / Raised in Amazon, Brazil - PERSONAL STATEMENT [2]

Hello! I am applying to an Erasmus Master Scholarship and would REALLY appreciate it if you could review my essay!

The university demands that we approach on our essay the following questions: outline my motivation for choosing this programme, why I think I am the right candidate, how the course is related to my post-graduation experiences and what I see as a topic of my master thesis. (max 1.200 words)

Erasmus Master Scholarship personal statement

Being born and raised in Amazon, Brazil, has sparked my interest in sustainable business, from the one's created by our local communities to the global industries that are fighting to make a positive impact in the world, using sustainability as a competitive tool.

I am confident that studying the Master in Global Market, Local Creativities will provide me with the academic knowledge that I need for the future where I hope to become a contributor to making positive change in my community that is going to last for generations to come. My mission is to help entrepreneurs through consultancy to create sustainable brands that positively impact the environment and society around them, with the use of innovation and creativity. I want to learn how to use entrepreneurship and innovation as a way to promote economic development in regions less affected by globalisation, such as Amazon, and to help local business to achieve global awareness, especially by understanding the history behind local consumption and how to build competitive advantages.

My enthusiasm for sustainable business arose when I founded a project of a sustainable economy in a riverside community inside Amazon that did not have access to basic education, clean water or electricity. So my project wasn't only about the local economy, but the social changes that I would like to achieve. With the help of global organisations, such as Santander Bank who sponsored our project, we were able to transform rainwater into drinking water, generate electricity and educate the community. Besides the huge social impact, we structured the business model and transformed acai-berry plantation into a sustainable source of income generation. Through this project, I developed a great sense of my civic responsibilities, leadership and commitment, with a focus on the common good. Because of the great social impact of our project, it was awarded the best project of Enactus Championship in Brazil and competed in China for Enactus World Championship, representing our country. I am confident that through GLOCAL I will be able to expand my learnings about innovation and entrepreneurship even more, as a way to promote local changes.

For my efforts and drive to create change within my community through my riverside project, I was awarded a scholarship from the Brazilian government to study a year abroad in Northern Ireland, UK. Through this experience I was able to improve my resilience and willingness to adapt in a new environment because, even though I was overwhelmed by the cultural revolution that I was going through, I managed to add to the sense of collegiality and community within the group, always contributing to improving the level of discussions by introducing a different point of view from my Amazon background. The resilience and communication skills I have developed through this scholarship will give me the confidence to integrate myself once again into European culture and engage with many initiatives at GLOCAL universities such as being able to work with Professor Lorna M Hughes in the research of Cultural & Creative Economies in the University of Glasgow and participating actively in the entrepreneurship and innovation club in Universitat de Barcelona.

After my graduation, I had the opportunity to put all my learnings into practise by working at a multinational company, where I strengthened my leadership skills, acquired more responsibility and transformed all my creative power into actions. Today at the age of 25, I live in São Paulo, responsible for the national marketing operation of our products. I was able to find strong relations between my activities and the courses offered in the programme since my responsibility requires a lot of knowledge in industry competitiveness from a company in the emerging sector and understanding the local consumption behaviour to comprehend how consumers think, introducing products that really fulfil their local needs, with the use of research, creativity and innovation.

Even though I am really proud of the successful career that I built at such a young age, I always had it clear in my mind that to become a consultant I needed to expand my academic knowledge, becoming an expert. The reason why I decided to apply for a Master in Global Market, Local Creativities was the current moment that we are living. The pandemic changed consumer behaviour, making the Local more valued and requested, contributing to the growth of local creativity. During this period, I worked as a volunteer consultant to help small businesses reinvent themselves to fit our new reality and it has been extremely gratifying to be able to contribute to potentiate local entrepreneurship. This all aroused my interest in pursuing my master's degree even more and everything about GLOCAL programme makes me certain that this is the right path for me.

Once studying this Master, I hope to engage with some subjects at the university that I believe would enrich and expand my previous knowledge. The subject of Innovation in the Middle East and North Africa in the University of Glasgow that educate about the development of innovation and entrepreneurship in MENA region as a way to promote economic development would add to my knowledge already gained from working in the riverside communities, in addition to expanding my comprehension about MENA region and recent developments. I am particularly keen on studying the subject Industries and Global Competition in Kyoto University as a way to learn more about how to build competitive advantages, besides being able to study about the political, economic, social, and cultural aspects of consumption through the subject Critical Consumption Studies is an extraordinary opportunity to learn and contribute to the interdisciplinary discussions in the classroom, with my learnings gained in my previous Master's "Neuroscience of Consumption". At the Universitat of Barcelona, what excites me the most is the opportunity to have academic knowledge about Creative Cities while having the opportunity to undertake a consultancy project. I believe that it would have such a good impact in my future helping me to acquire more knowledge that will allow me to become a great consultant.

As my master thesis topic, I would like to dedicate myself to something that I could study at all three universities, building research throughout my Erasmus programme. So I will study how local sustainable businesses have reinvented themselves in the pandemic scenario, collecting best practices and tactics of entrepreneurship from different countries and cultures.

The combination of engineering management with a focus on entrepreneurship as my graduate formation and my interests in marketing and consumer behaviour as my master's studies has become fascinating to me. Because of my academic background, I can contribute with great discussions from a business point of view, combining my knowledge about industries and economic development with the use of research and consumer intelligence as a competitive factor. I am certain that my previous knowledge merged with the studies that I am excited to engage in the GLOCAL programme will contribute to enriching the discussions within the room, bringing a different and interdisciplinary point of view on the challenges of globalising societies and economies.

Through my experience in Northern Ireland I have realised that studying abroad in three different countries can be challenging, demanding sacrifices; nevertheless once given the opportunity, I know I have the motivation and capacity to succeed in this rewarding and intellectually fulfilling experience.