Mission accomplished

As is customary in Brazil, the person who graduates with the highest overall grade throughout the undergraduate program is announced at the Graduation Ceremony and honoured with a medal.

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 saying my name a few seconds before the professor named it. In that fraction of time, I just took a deep breath and remembered how much I dedicated myself to be 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 soundtracks that pushed me to the stage to be honoured. In that night, I was awarded a Golden Medal of Honour 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.