About Me
I was born in Sao Joao De Meriti, Rio De Janeiro. In 1999 I moved to New Jersey to continue my education in the United States. In the Summer of 2000 I moved to New York City to work as a model. I commuted to New Jersey to continue my studies and in 2003 I earned an Associate’s Degree in Science/International Business and Trade from Bergen Community College. I decided to attend Hunter College in New York City to get my Bachelors degree and in 2007 I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts/Italian Language and Civilization with a minor in Economics. To support myself in school, I worked in modeling, bartending, marketing and later as an Interpreter. In 2009 I decided to continue my education at Hunter College and in 2012 I earned a Master’s Degree in TESOL.
I never forgot the difficult and challenging life I had growing up in Brazil. As a result, I wanted to make a difference for those living in the same conditions. Living in Brazil taught me important survival skills that I have used throughout my life, but my education in the United States taught me that the life I thought was normal growing up, was not normal but a consequence of the poor economic conditions of my country and a lack of knowledge of my rights. Wanting to help others that grew up as I did, I realized I could build on my modeling and marketing experience to raise money to benefit poor children in the slums of Brazil. Turning this realization into a reality, I founded Better World Foundation International, www.betterworldfoundation.us, in 2005. In 2012, due to the horrible hurricane that hit NYC, I was forced to give up my charity foundation for the lack of sponsors.
I have since then decided to focus my energy on being the best teacher I can be. I choose to be a teacher because I love helping others become the best they can be in life. I believe that education provide us with the tools we need to achieve that by giving us an opportunity to learn basic skills that can help us through out our lives. Another reason why I became a teacher is because I love learning. Teaching gives me the opportunity to learn something new everyday from the books I read, the lessons I plan but most of all from my own students’ classroom participation.
My favorite quote is “Once you stop learning, you start dying” from Albert Einstein. I love philosophy, opera, classical music and art. My favorite composer is Beethoven and I hope one day I can learn to play the piano so I can play a few of his songs. I also love to travel and meet new people, but I prefer learning the language of the country I’m visiting first in order to be able to integrate and learn as much as I can about their culture. At the moment I have visited 49 countries, 368 cities and learned 7 languages. At the moment Im learning Arabic and in the future I do plan to learn Chinese.
Below is a list of the countries I have visited.
Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland (Republic of), Israel, Italy, India, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Reunion, San Marino, Scotland, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, The Bahamas, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican.
LIVED: Brazil, Italy, Netherlands and United States.
WANTS TO GO: Australia, New Zealand, China, Tibet, Myanmar, and Nepal.