Anderson Blog Posts

It was the summer of 2016 in the Southern Hemisphere, when a younger version of myself made a decision that would change our lives forever. A young woman with her life already planned decided to quit her excellent job and dive head-first into a journey into the unknown. Sometimes, what you are looking for is not necessarily what you will achieve. Embracing that truth gave me a different perspective on life.

First, a brief explanation of how I made to the US. In 2017 and at the age of 24, I chose the “Au Pair Exchange Program” as the bridge to connect this Brazilian girl with her American dream. When I landed in New York City, I wish I could say I was impressed, and for a half a second, I was. But growing up in a city bigger than New York, Sao Paulo, ruined the experience for me in some ways. Still, it was hard to process all the lights and tall buildings and the fact that the beginning of my journey had started.

In April of 2018, I moved to Albuquerque, and again my life changed. I was presented to the Land of Enchantment and looking back now almost 5 years I can see the enchantment I had heard about. All the colors, the people, the amazing food, and the mountains caught me completely off-guard, and I fell in love with New Mexico. During the final year of my exchange program, I decided I wanted to go back to school, and Anderson School of Management was my choice.

Being an international student is not an easy life, especially if you don’t feel like you belong. Anderson made me feel accepted and heard. I chose the MBA for Professionals program with a concentration in Finance, which would complement my BA in International Business and my prior career experience in banking. Once I had the money to support my studies and felt like I was ready to start, the COVID-19 Pandemic hit. The world shut down, the life we knew changed, as well as my hopes to start my MBA. In the Fall 2021, after the devasting year we all had, I was able to start my program.

I was blessed with amazing people who supported me during this journey. I learned you can get places by yourself, but it makes life lighter when you have people to share your weaknesses and strengths. Anderson certainly supported me in every way I needed. I guess International at Anderson to me is about belonging. When you are a foreign student, everything is new to you, you navigate between living and surviving in a different country where most of the time you don’t have that safety nest you would have back in your country. Home is not where you were born anymore, or at least is not just one place, and Anderson is home to me.

Camila Fernandes Da Silva
MBA for Professionals
Anderson Ambassador