Rod Hokenson, the club's International Service Committee Chair, introduced today’s speaker, Danilo (he said to call him Dan!) who spoke to us about his new role at SHU and about his native country. He said he’s been in the US for 5 years now and that all of his family was back in Brazil but saw his parents last December. He received his associate’s degree from JCC and just graduated from Siena Heights last week! He is their International Admissions Counselor. He really loves this country, he said.His country, he said, in the middle of 2016 experienced much economic hardship due to the two largest companies there got into conflict and in what he called a scandal and the country’s president happened to be involved which led to his impeachment at which time the vice president took over. Another elect will take place in November of this year. Dan said that he was hopeful things would get better and he can already see an upswing in the economy now.
The Amazon, he said, was the largest forest in the world and runs through 9 countries with 60% of it in Brazil. His country, he said, was the only one where residents speak Portuguese and the other countries in South America speak Spanish. Brazil, he said, was colonized by the Portuguese around the 1500’s and brought slaves from Africa at that time. Immigrants then came into the country from various countries like England, Italy and Poland, he said. His grandfather was originally from Italy and that’s where he said he got his name.
Because it is a third world country, he said, it still has its share of violence but is hopeful that in the future it will become safer.
Dan spoke about the country’s famous carnival (traditionally between February and May every year) which originated in Salvador in the northern part of Brazil and said it has since expanded across the entire country and is very popular in Rio. The carnival is popular for its parades, fancy costumes, dancing and music, he said.
Brazil, he said, was the site of the 2016 Summer Olympics. While it did bring in many tourists, the buildings that were built for the games have since been abandoned unfortunately.
Dan will be tasked with recruiting foreign students from Brazil and other countries to attend Siena. He, himself, was a product of this same system to play soccer for JCC in 2013 where he played for 2 years before transferring to Siena. He will report to Fatmy Abed who joined him at today’s meeting and spoke to us some months back. He and Fatmy, Dan said, were thinking seriously about joining our club. Best wishes, Dan, for a very successful career at Siena.