Hi! My name is Gabriel Fernandes. I’m from a small city called Petropolis in Brazil, and grew up and was raised in Rio de Janeiro. I am now going to be attending the University of the South Sewanee in the United States (U.S.) with the hopes of graduating with a bachelor’s in International and Global Studies with Politics. 

My Educational Background

I studied in a traditional Brazilian school, where most of the academic focus was on preparing students for the national college entrance exam called ENEM (Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio). Because of this, I didn’t have much exposure to international opportunities until my final year of high school in 2023, when I was able to begin preparing seriously for U.S. universities thanks to mentorship programs and more structured guidance. That’s when I first started drafting my college list of the universities I would later apply to. 

Even though my school’s academic focus was different from the international application path I chose, their support was essential. They helped me prepare key documents such as the translated transcript, and made it possible for teachers to write my letters of recommendation. It was a reminder that even when we pursue goals that don’t fully align with our environment, learning how to work with those differences is part of the journey.

After graduating, I decided to take a gap year to strengthen my academic profile, since U.S. universities are known for their rigorous and holistic application process. During that time, I was able to focus on things I truly cared about, building my passion project Caminhos da Expressão (Paths of Expression), joining the Latin America Leadership Academy, improving my English, and participating in several Model United Nations (MUN) conferences. This gap year helped me grow personally and academically, and gave me the clarity to apply with a stronger sense of purpose.

Breaking the Language Barrier

In 2020, I decided to start learning English by myself. I began by taking some English courses at Centro de Cultura Anglo-Americana and Fisk (well-known private English schools in Brazil), but most of my real learning came later through online language classes mainly on YouTube, and once I started to feel slightly more comfortable in the new language I started practicing through video games which really helped me out as it let me have real conversations with other people more frequently and made the learning process much easier.

It took around 2 years for me to get to the point of understanding a situation completely in English. I feel I truly started to improve in 2023 when I reached B2 and now C1, which are international levels that show how fluent someone is (B2 is upper-intermediate and C1 is able to be quite communicative in advanced situations).

The main challenge was gaining the confidence to learn from within Brazil, where only a small percentage of the population speaks English fluently. This made it difficult for me to interact with and practice my speaking skills, so I started reaching out to people on the internet. By really getting out of my comfort zone and failing a lot (mispronunciation, wrong words, etc), I was able to succeed in the language later o,n and I am very grateful I began the journey when I did.

My Personal Statement and Application

I applied through the Common App, and within that was required to write an essay about myself. I wrote it centred around the metaphor of a hive, inspired by one of my favourite movies called Bee Movie. I used it to describe how, within school, I often saw people in isolated groups and felt as if I was always on the outside. The story followed my journey of turning that outsider feeling into a strength, learning how to connect with people, support others, and find my voice by inspiring others as well.

One of the biggest turning points is when I describe how I lost when running for class president. During that moment, I could have easily taken it as a step back, but instead, it helped me discover what my actual goal is in creating connections, and that failure then pushed me to start building bridges between my community. I was later selected as class speaker for my high school graduation, which was definitely a milestone as it helped show my resilience in my essay and how I stayed focused on my goals of connecting with others and supporting my community despite things not going to plan.

For the application itself, I applied test optional (which is when applicants have the choice to submit SAT or ACT scores, or not, as part of their application), with a GPA of 8.3/10 in a Brazilian Diploma, which is around 3.4 for the U.S. As I mentioned in my English second language journey, I did the DET (Duolingo English Test) and got a 125 on the final test, so I used that for my English proficiency. I did a lot of MUNs in high school and helped organise conferences during my gap year, which helped me in the application process, as it had a big positive impact through being recognised by the main news portals in my region. One of the most memorable ones was representing Brazil at Harvard Model UN, debating alongside over 4,000 students from 50+ countries.

My Extracurriculars

• Founder of Caminhos da Expressao - a passion project using emotional intelligence workshops and education to help young people develop their voice. We reached over 130 students and partnered with volunteer psychologists.

• Participation in virtual leadership boot camp - Participated in Latin America Leadership Academy, a network that develops young leaders from over 18 countries, was awarded a $100 scholarship among over 1000 applicants, and presented the final pitch to 90+ people.

• Delegated at Harvard Model United Nations 2024 - participated in a 4-day conference with over 4,000 students from 50_ nationalities.

• Academic Director at PUC-Rio’s MUN - helped organise and lead a model United Nations sustainable development committee. Wrote study guides and guided 250 high school and university students.

• Organise my school's internal MUN - acted as a delegate and later organiser of the school's MUN project.

• Best delegate at DiploMUN - debated freedom of speech over 2 days, achieving 1st place among 30+ participants in a MUN committee with 830+ people across Brazil.

• Volunteer fundraising project - helped raise multiple donations for local institutions working with social vulnerability.

Discovering My Passion Project

Within my personal statement, I also spoke about my passion project. I initially created it with two other young individuals I had met during my participation at the Latin America Leadership Academy (the biggest leadership boot camp in Latin America), where we realised we had all experienced the challenge of expressing ourselves and so set out with a simple yet powerful idea that emotions like anxiety and nervousness aren’t barriers, they’re fuel and so the key was to use those emotions creatively.

Caminhos da Expressão is a project that was born from a desire to transform how people connect through communication. We believe everyone carries a unique way of expressing themselves and that, with guidance and support, it’s possible to develop this ability in a confident and authentic way. Our goal is to help people who struggle with public speaking (due to shyness, insecurity, or not having had many opportunities to practice) by offering a safe space to build self-confidence, emotional intelligence, and leadership skills, promoting speech as a tool for expression and transformation.

Through this, we worked with individuals, teaching them how to transform their voices into an expression of themselves by organising workshops designed around this core insight. During interactive breakout rooms led by professional psychologists, students opened up about experiences, and we guided them in shifting perspectives, from viewing their anxieties as something negative to seeing them as energy sources that could propel their speech, enhance their authenticity, and help them connect deeply with their audience.

Why I Chose Sewanee

At first, I was looking for a university beyond rankings, and one that had great financial support. After that, I started searching for programs focusing on leadership and personal growth alongside intellectual challenge. At Sewanee, that showed up in several ways. The Bonner Leader Program and the Office of Civic Engagement were integrated into how the university thinks about purpose and belonging. When I read about the work Bonner students were doing in Nashville and the surrounding areas, I could see a path for me to combine what I love, using policy, psychology, and storytelling to bridge divides, with how I could contribute as a student.

Being selected as a Bonner Leader and Sullivan Scholar confirmed and made me choose the university, seeing beyond where I was, but where I could go. So while other universities had great programs on paper, Sewanee felt like a place that was already aligned with who I was and who I’m trying to become, and also for the full tuition scholarship that helped this decision to become financially possible.

For my scholarship, I combined the International Honours Award, a merit-based scholarship awarded in my acceptance letter, with the Bonner program acceptance and the need-based financial aid. This helped a lot because if I didn’t receive it, I wouldn’t be able to afford Sewanee, which was/is one of my dream schools since starting the application.

Preparing for the U.S

I believe that everything is related to and links back to the community, and so I was able to join and am now a part of a great community online with other international students in the U.S., and so my main type of preparation has been talking to people who have experienced this type of adaptation and move already.

I am starting to get quite nervous as I wait for the time to come, especially financially. Emotionally, I believe it will be a huge challenge as well, but I have confidence I will be able to overcome it quickly, especially with the support of the other Brazilians in the US community.

As a freshman, Sewanee has a policy where you need to live on campus which is definitely taking the stress off living arrangements and I feel I will most likely keep living on campus for the rest of my degree as well because it will give me that full University experience with having a roommate, going to class, and meeting people from many different backgrounds. It will help more to connect with the university and truly enjoy the college environment.

Advice for Future International Students

The biggest advice I’d give is to stay open-minded about universities, and who you are and who you can become throughout the process. Once you begin your application with that mindset, you'll be surprised by how much you’ll learn about yourself, through your essays, as well as in the choices you make, the goals you set, and the stories you decide to tell.

I’d say don't limit your dreams based on what seems possible from where you are now. The process will challenge you, change you, and bring out parts of yourself you didn’t even know were there. It’s more than just getting into a college; it’s a journey of discovering your own voice.

If I could go back, I would’ve used more of my free time to explore more of the academic part, but focusing also on connecting deeper with my interests, my community, and extracurriculars. These are the things that helped me grow the most, and that I now see were just as important as any test or transcript.