Notre Dame network in Brazil connects students to virtual summer internships
The Notre Dame network in Brazil helped connect students to internships during the global pandemic. Three Notre Dame undergraduates from Brazil are currently working virtually with a variety of companies in São Paulo, thanks to the collaboration and coordination of the São Paulo Global Center and the Notre Dame Club of Brazil.
The São Paulo Global Center and the Notre Dame Club of Brazil have a long history of helping Notre Dame students find employment in Brazil, yet knew they needed to make a special effort this year given the unusually difficult circumstances. Student resumes were collected and broadly shared through the Brazil and Latin American network.
Beatriz Tesseroli Sano is interning at Amaro, a fashion startup. Amaro created the internship upon the advice and recommendation of local alumnus Joshua Kempf (‘08). Sano says she’s thankful for the opportunity and grateful to the Sāo Paulo Global Center and ND alumni.
“Due to the global pandemic scenario, all programs I was applying for were canceled,” shares Sano.
“Thanks to their help, I was able to get a summer internship in one of the companies that I admire the most in its industry and that I didn’t even know it was possible to work with. They were also of huge help in solving bureaucratic issues and did not stop trying until everything was solved."
Marcelo Bernath Piccolotto is interning at NEI, a B2B e-commerce and marketplace, led by Joshua Kempf ('08). When his internship was canceled late spring because of COVID-19, Piccolotto thought his chances of getting another one for the summer were very low.
“Thankfully, I remembered how supportive the alumni of the São Paulo Global Center and the Notre Dame Club of Brazil always were to me and my family so I emailed them to see if they knew about any opportunities,” he says.
In less than 24 hours, several alumni contacted him and within the week, he secured an internship at NEI, a technology startup where a ND alum was the CEO.” Now half-way through his internship experience, Marcelo shares “I am loving my internship at NEI. The team is fantastic and I believe I’m having an even better experience than I would have in my original internship.”
"We at NEI are in our 8th straight year of hosting Notre Dame interns,” says alumni sponsor and NEI CEO, Joshua Kempf (‘08). “We continue year after year because the interns deliver real value for us, taking a project out of our backlog and completing it.”
Kempf initially started hosting interns out of a desire to pay forward the internship experience he had as an undergrad, but it quickly became obvious that the students could make a meaningful impact on his company’s results.
Lucas Carrit Delgado Pinheiro is currently interning at Todos Pela Educação, an education NGO led by Notre Dame Club of Brazil President emeritus Olavo Nogueira Filho, and reports that he is “really enjoying this experience."
The initiative speaks to the value of the Notre Dame network.
“Before enrolling at ND, I heard a lot about how helpful and important the alumni network is for the university and now I realize it couldn’t be more true,” says Sano.
“This whole event is another example of how you can always count with the Notre Dame family around the globe, in good times and in difficult times,” comments Piccolotto.
Learn more about internship opportunities in São Paulo.