Alumni 1990 – 1999

Maria Etelvina Barros, better known as Telva Barros, is a retired UN sociologist. She was the first employee of UNAIDS, the United Nations program that aims to lead and coordinate the global response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. She lived in Brazil, Mozambique and Panama, always working on topics related to HIV/AIDS. 

When she was 44 years old, she was Visiting Scholar at the University of Portsmouth, between 1992 and 1993, when she had the opportunity to visit several projects throughout the United Kingdom, related to the themes of Law, education and health. For Barros, the experience in the UK was transformative: “When I went to the UK in 1992, I needed a career upgrade. As soon as I came back, the United States Embassy invited me to work in Brasilia. So, it was a huge leap, it improves a lot your English, you get international experience, it was a meaningful leap”.

She emphasizes the importance of maintaining ties with the Alumni network, since when she arrived in Brasilia, she felt the need to find a place of exchange, because she did not know much about the new city, it was then that she met the former Brazilian Association of UK Alumni, where Barros found a welcoming and instigating space for exchanges and contacts. And the connection with the UK did not stop there, as his daughters, Julieta and Anita, were Chevening scholars and actively participate in the network.

“Studying abroad is not the end but the beginning”.

Sidney Mello is a Geologist, was a professor at Universidade Federal Fluminense [Fluminense Federal University] and is currently Head of Research at Cesgranrio, where he works on the evaluation of education in Brazil. Between 1995 and 1999 he was at the University of Leeds on the occasion of his doctorate. According to Sidney, the experience in the United Kingdom: “It provided an international background and improved my scientific knowledge”. Specialist in marine geology, Sidney is the author of several works, led and supervised research works in Earth sciences and worked in the administration of higher education. For more than 35 years, he trained many students and contributed to marine sciences in Brazil.

"One of the former students said to me that beyond the innovative use of emerging technology in education, the will of sharing knowledge has been a strong point in my professional contributions to the education sector".

Between 1999 and 2000, Jorge was at The University of Salford during his master's degree in Virtual Environments, an experience that provided the basis for continuing to research and teach, using multimedia resources as support for English language classes and in processes of acting as a facilitator of digital resources in the training of students and educators. PhD in Language Arts, he is the author of several works and currently works as an educator in the public school system, as an English language teacher for students from 6 to 12 years old and in the training of educators. For him, the connection with former colleagues has maintained ties with the United Kingdom and with current research in the field of applications of emerging technologies.