Mission accomplished

As is customary in Brazil, the student with the highest overall grade in the undergraduate program is announced at the Graduation Ceremony and awarded a medal of honor.

I was wearing a graduation gown and, along with my classmates, attending the graduation ceremony when a professor came to announce the student with the best grades in our class. My friends were already staring at me, and my family was whispering my name moments before the professor announce it. In that fraction of time, I just took a deep breath and remembered the dedication required to become the first person in my family to graduate from a University; how hard I worked to be there; how many nights studying to recover the time that I spent in an office, working, while other students could only focus on studying; how proud I was of myself… and then, my name was called! Applause and shouting were the soundtrack that carried me to the stage to be honored.

That night, I was awarded a Gold Medal of Honor for outstanding performance throughout the Financial Management program at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais.1



1 Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais (PUC Minas) is a private and non-profit Brazilian Catholic university. Recently, the Congregation for Catholic Education of the Vatican chose the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais, PUC Minas, as the largest in the world.