I am a graduate in Engineering since October 2020, from my Brazil university, which is located next to São Paulo, my hometown and the city I have always lived. I have also did an exchange program with a scholarship for 1 year to study Project Management and Sustainability in Engineering in France, which was from 2017-2018. I moved mountains to be able to have even more experience from this, to get something very precious: work experience in Project Management. And I succeeded! I got the agreement from the government and from my university, so I worked during 2018-2019 on a corporate setting, on big multinational companies, in their HQ in France (L'Oréal and Keyrus). Those were global digital transformation projects, which I chose to be inserted in a fast-paced environment, see "what is all about" the work in Europe compared to South America, and really, to keep pushing the boundary of what a Latin America person is supposed to work since in all my efforts I was the only one from this area.

And why have I chosen Engineering and these Project Management experiences? I always knew I wanted to be involved in big projects with lots of people, and I was aware that my natural inclination for organization and advocating for people's efforts was a potential positive contribution to the world. In the back of my mind, animation was THE job, because it involved project management to create a work that can teach and support people around the world, but I always considered it to be a US-only endeavor. The presence of studios or released work in Latin America was not expressive enough until my graduation, and even if it was possible, I was already having a hard time to get into my actual line of work: Brazil was suffering from prolonged political and economic instability, and then the pandemic came right when I finished university.

So then how did I got here, even applying to THU Career Camp? First, I decided to keep honing my Project Management skills in a high-responsability scenario at Deloitte. That's where I started working from August 2021, after making sure my university thesis for Sustainability was actually available to more scholars and publishing its full version on February 2021 (so it took me 5 months to get the job at Deloitte). And since Deloitte is a multinational consulting company, I got into big projects and I looked for people in many areas to understand the maximum I could about their work and possibilities in the field. However, I was only getting satisfied with my own initiatives, which were creating educational guides and materials about Sustainability, Emotional Intelligence, Team work and Happiness. I was getting involved to what I believe is my greatest contribution, which is to organize, decide and make content that can be enjoyed to the largest amount of people. That's when I started to think that I might be missing a possibility in the Animation industry that I didn't see before. Around December 2022, I found out about Pixar's Story course which had open applications, and since I secretely want to create the actual stories of animation (and not only manage the whole team), I applied for it. Then, after the course began on March 2023... After working on story reels and being introduced to different careers in Animation by Pixar professionals (and former Pixar professionals) throughout 2023... I found out that I can actually work in Animation with Production Management. And that my stories in storyboard format are getting through people (you can see their comments on the link I provided). Ever since then, I have been getting as much information I can about the industry in different countries, because I also believe that my advocacy role in Production will be used for other underepresented nationalities that want to work in it, not only Latin America. And while still not actually getting a Production Management role, I am making efforts to keep honing my skills and to find same-minded people along the way, which is why I'm applying to THU Career Camp. All the people applying here will be part of the leaders of the industry in the future, and that can also be compromised if they don't get their support today, so this is too much of a positive event to be missed. Considering I want to work with Production Management, I will be someone that will even get to choose who will work in the studio, so I want to get involved with people as soon as possible and understand their journey and their evolution, so that I can make more conscious decisions in the future. And I have much to learn from the actual Career education that you will provide. 

This will be the main turning point of my animation starting career.