Portuguese Flagship Program

UGA will send its first group of students to Brazil in February:

Students participating in the inaugural class of the Portuguese Flagship Program will spend 2013 attending language and content courses at São Paulo State University and working with global trend-setting companies.

Students will spend the Brazil fall semester attending classes and spring participating in an internship and conducting research. Supporting the motto for flagship programs, "creating global professionals," students will complete internships in line with their ­professional aspirations.

"This experience puts their career in an international context. All of these students are learning Portuguese for specific purposes so they can apply it to their professional careers," said Robert Moser, program director and associate professor of Romance languages in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "Students will graduate from this program already having had this international experience with a high level of language proficiency and making that link explicit between what they are doing in school and their career."

Students in the program declared majors in language, sociology, business, journalism and advertising. For these sectors, opportunities abound in Brazil.

"Brazil is the place to be right now for advertising and PR. They are the global hot spot," said Tom Reichert, professor and head of the advertising and public relations department in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. "This is where our students need to be."

As the story goes on to point out, several university faculty and administrators recently returned froma trip to Brazil, where they were working to expand UGA engagement with institutions in Brazil. This will benefit students and faculty in both countries, as we work together to expand teaching and research opportunities in both countries. Muito bem, as they say.