DENVER – Between January and February, US-Brazil Connect will welcome 108 of Brazil’s top math and science students to locations around the country as a reward for their hard work during the nonprofit’s Conexão Mundo Program. The trip also aims to raise students’ awareness of international careers in the STEM fields.

Last year, Colorado Governor Hickenlooper and Denver Mayor Hancock joined forces with the Denver-based nonprofit to celebrate the signing of one of the largest educational exchanges linking the United States with Brazil.  Sponsored the Brazilian Confederation of Industry (CNI), the program has already engaged over 300 US students and young professionals in leadership experiences in Brazil and served thousands of Brazilian students spread over 20 Brazilian states.

The 2015 Student Delegates are the top 5 percent of 2,000 students that participated in the Conexão Mundo Program in 2014. While most of those students will come to Denver, three of US-Brazil Connect’s community college partners will also host students at Jackson College in Michigan, Kirkwood Community College in Iowa, and Flathead Valley Community College in Montana.  

Each of the students have a packed schedule for their two-week stay. Days are devoted to slides down Keystone Mountain and visits to local high schools. Nights will be spent at Nuggets games and enjoying American food with host families. But the students are also here on business, explains US-Brazil Connect President Mary Gershwin.

“The key to our model is that by connecting young people, we open both our Brazilian students and our US fellows to career opportunities that can change their lives,” she said. “We fuel the Western Hemisphere’s two largest economies through creative partnership.”

For the students, that means they will devote much of their stay to examining possibilities for future work by visiting some of Colorado’s industrial leaders. Tracy Simpson, US-Brazil Connect’s Visit Coordinator, has arranged tours of software engineering company Applied Control, engineering firm Arcadis US, Denver’s 3D print shop and other leading Colorado businesses.

Most notably, the Brazilian students will have a rare chance to tour aerospace giant Lockheed Martin in Littleton, Colorado where they will be seeing some of the company’s cutting-edge technologies first hand. Virtual reality, 3D manufacturing and the support area where the company runs its planetary missions will all be on display for the students’ benefit. 

This is all welcome news to student Fabricio Reis, who hopes to study Chemistry at an US university. He looks forward to the chance to meet US high school students with similar interests in technical fields. Even so, he knows the first step will be to practice his English.

Each of the Brazilian students attend technical schools funded and operated by the Brazilian Confederation of Industry. As the main organization training Brazil’s future work force, CNI has become the largest secondary education institution in the Americas. Over 7 million students attend CNI’s school systems across Brazil for training in the applied sciences.

For industry leaders in Brazil, Conexão Mundo marks a recognition that in Brazil—as in the rest of the world—skills in English, technical science and international leadership are keys to success in a globalized economy. 

The same logic explains US-Brazil Connect’s approach to training US fellows to work in collaboration with Brazilian partners.