Sometimes, university doesn’t reach expectations. Or maybe you graduate, but there’s something missing. Or you’re just curious about a subject and want to know more about it! Doesn’t matter why, extracurricular courses are always a good thing, and they’re very common in Brazil. For example, Cásper Líbero university provides some courses for people who wants to know more about communication in general – among other things. And some casperians apply to these courses along their student’s years. Here are some stories!
Alana Claro, senior in journalism, attended a course called “Introduction to Programming”, at the Let’s Code Academy, a Brazilian school focused in programming. “I’ve always wanted to learn programming: HTML language, web and computer programs, games and apps”. One day she was walking through São Paulo and saw the Let’s Code Academy – she took a while to search the school and call them, but when she did, she was instructed to attend the introductory course. “At the beginning my parents didn’t understand why I wanted to do it, but then I explained better and they supported me. Also, I payed with my own salary, so it was easier to convince them”. For Alana, going to this course was a good thing because she could get in touch with something different then university’s classes could teach: “I think there’s this ‘creative resolution of problems’, that I would’ve never learned if I’d just relied on university”. But for people who think programming is an easy thing, Alana says: “is like learning a new language, there’s a whole logic and structure to follow”, so, nothing better than going to a place expert on the subject!
Giovanna Campos, sophomore in journalism, attended a fashion course called “Fashion Production”, at Senac – an educational institution famous here in Brazil. Once a week during 10 weeks Giovanna attended classes from 9am to 5pm. “I’ve got interested because I’m looking forward to work with fashion journalism, and this course introduced me to an area in fashion that I didn’t know”. As Alana, she searched this course all by herself because, according to her, she wanted to amplify her knowledge in fashion, and wanted to have something different on her curriculum – an important factor for students who are starting at the job market. Giovanna said that the positive points about studying something outside university were meeting people from elsewhere, with different realities, ambitions, from different places: “it’s a great opportunity to grow as a person, to get out of the bubble that we’re trapped in when we stay a long time in a single place with the same people”.
But what about online courses? Letícia Santini, sophomore in journalism as well did an amazing one: “Global Muckraking: Investigative journalism and global media”, from Columbia University at the edX website. It took a whole month to finish it. She also did an on-site course about network management from the Skill Up school, because she “always enjoyed investigative journalism and social media”. But let’s take one step at a time, right?
The online course called Leticia’s attention because it was in English, from a highly known university and, of course, talked about something she was curious about: “with this program I learned about several journalists I’ve never heard of, and it was an excellent way to practice the language”. As stated by Letícia, it was very interesting to learn a little about not only journalism, but the America’s teaching method: “the classes were very theoretical, but afterwards there were some exercises. There were some interviews with famous journalists too!” So, not only she did an extracurricular program, she did one from another country. That’s definitely another positive point: being able to know things about other countries without leaving the comfort of your home.
The on-site course was searched because of need: “I think that journalists need to know more about metrics and engines of social medias nowadays. I’ve always felt like I needed to learn about it for my personal and professional life”. For her, this course was more worthwhile than the online one, because she got in touch with people who already worked at the area: “I was one of the few students there, so it was nice to hear people who actually worked with this to tell their stories”. The interaction between students and teachers was another positive point for Letícia, as there were no tests or grades involved, so there were only people who really wanted to learn.
On both cases Letícia heard about the programs through Facebook: the online one from a report and the on-site one from an advertising.
As told before, Cásper Líbero itself provides some courses for their students – and whoever wants to attend it. Some of these students work at the called “Events Center” at the university, and one of their functions is to help through this programs provided. That’s Fernanda Poleone case. Senior in Public Relations, she has attended 10 courses that way. “We’re responsible for helping with simple tasks like checking who’s there – as the courses are on-site, students need to attend a specific number of classes – help the teacher and the students with anything they need, control the break time, those things”. Yes, she works, and works a lot – even though she called “simple tasks”. But according to Fernanda, that’s also a good opportunity to learn. “We can get in touch with several substances, meet new people, learn something new, even though we’re working”. She told us that, as far as she can remember, all teachers from all courses she helped on were nice, well prepared, and very good at what they were doing.
So, in the matter of learning, it doesn’t matter how – at university, at online courses, on-site ones or working – you can always have something to pass forward. Extracurricular courses are a good way for people to know subjects they’re curious about, and obviously, learn more about themselves.