Global classrooms: Brazil
By Grace Sanborn ’25
Led by Michael Senra, associate professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and chair of engineering (B.S.) and international studies (A.B.) dual degree program, and Matt Bednarsky, program manager and fellowship coordinator at the Dyer Center, 14 students traveled to Brazil over the winter interim to explore both urban and sustainable processes.
The World Runs on Processes emerged out of two previous experiences—a winter interim course Senra led in Portugal by the same name last year, and a journey to Brazil by eight integrative engineering students last March to explore the Ilha dos Arvoredos, a sustainable island created in the 1950s by Lafayette alumnus Fernando Lee, who graduated in 1924.
The course straddled two locations: the city of São Paulo and the coastal town of Guarujá, where the Ilha dos Arvoredos is located. In partnership with the Instituto Nova Maré (INMAR), which manages the island, students explored how sustainable processes are created in Brazil.
“So in a lot of ways, the course became this kind of synergy of looking at urban processes, plus looking at and being able to kind of look at comparisons between the United States and Brazil, which is a developing nation,” Senra says.
“My time in Guaruja and the time we spent with the people from INMAR really sticks out to me,” Rachel Kimball ’26 says. “It was really special to get to know them and learn about all of their sustainability efforts.”
The course also aimed to get students involved with the processes they discussed through entrepreneurship by pitching a potential solution to INMAR for one of their assignments.
“It’s one thing to look at them from the outside, but my role was to help them integrate into these processes and potentially make a difference, experience them but get involved and contribute,” Bednarsky says.
While the initial trip to Brazil last year was solely engineers, students from different disciplines and interests went on the experience this year.
“I think that a very gratifying part of the experience was seeing how different students think about issues with urban processes,” Senra says.
From taking cooking classes and going to a fútbol museum in São Paulo, to beach and mangrove cleanups and ziplining at Voo de Serra zipline and Caminhos do Mar Park, the 14 students experienced both cultural and process-oriented realities in Brazil.
“I feel like the island, in a way, was the nucleus of the trip,” Bednarsky says.
