30 students from five Brazilian States attend the 2012 Annual Access Camp

São Paulo, January 31, 2012

A couple of the students get instruction on fielding a baseball from members of Little League Brazil.

The students dig in for some hands-on practice putting the dough on the cookie sheets at Senac - São Paulo.

Access Camp I: Coming Together

By plane, trains and automobiles, the 30 standout Access Microscholarship students came to the big city from their language centers in Recife, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Manaus and Sao Paulo for the 2nd Annual Access Camp sponsored and organized by the Regional English Language Office (RELO) staff with help from Cultural Affairs colleagues. 

On arrival at the Century Paulista Hotel on Sunday January 22, the students barely had time to introduce themselves before they were divided into teams with Youth Ambassador mentors – two of them were former Access students – to participate in group and team exercises that gave them a chance to use their English to get to know each other. 

At the traditional pizza party that truly bonds them, CG Bill Popp wished them well on their weeklong program.

Access Camp II: Social Responsibility

On Monday morning, the students began their lessons in social responsibility, a key element of the program.  The various teams visited our corporate partners -- Dow, Microsoft, Google, Fedex, and Ford -- to learn how these companies were using programs to reach beyond the corporate walls to give back to communities. 

Over lunch hosted by each company, executives discussed the importance of how individual volunteering from within the company made them part of the social fabric of the local communities.  In the afternoon, the students took the information they had received from the companies to develop their own video projects.

On Tuesday, the students were hosted by SENAC, one of the Consulate’s most valuable and supportive partners, where they had full access to SENAC’s computer lab where they could filmed and edited their videos.

In a huge change of pace, the students also had the chance to learn the art of making chocolate chip cookies from Cookie Assistance Officer (CAO) Scott Whitmore and the staff of SENAC’s nationally recognized culinary school.  SENAC added some homemade ice cream and the kids overloaded on sugar, chocolate and yumminess.

They needed the extra sugar blast to carry them through the evening’s karaoke (another great American cultural creation! Meaning empty orchestra), where the hidden lounge singers in all of them burst forth as they lined up – again and again – to belt out American rock, soul and blues standards from the last decades until the wee hours of the morning.

Access Camp III: Sports, Burgers and "Smores"

On the Sao Paulo Birthday holiday, the youngsters celebrated with a variety of tastes and flavors.  A tour of the city – sans the normal traffic – led to a vist to the Catavento Museum, an interactive science and health museum for children of all ages, and a stop at the City Market where they devoured the market’s renowned mortadela sandwiches and codfish cakes. 

They then returned to the Consulate to enjoy a day of baseball, swimming and bbq with their American home stay families.

The students had their first taste of the great American pastime, baseball, with the help from a Little League Brazil baseball team and Consulate staff, really getting into the swing of things before taking a dip in the pool. 

Baseball isn’t baseball without hotdogs, and the kids filled up on dogs, burgers, and mac and cheese in the company of their host families before trying their hands and taste buds on Smores, the perfect sugar high for any camp experience. After a few burnt marshmallows they proved to be quick studies and one participant unwittingly found the derivation of the word, saying “they taste so good, I want some more!”  After the bbq, all the students went home with their American host families to spend the first of two nights with them.

The baseball clinic and barbecue, including the marvelous affinity they showed with their young American hosts, was filmed by TV Record for its Friday morning entertainment news program.

Access Camp IV: “Awesome” Homestays

Students arrived at the Consulate Thursday morning bubbling over with stories of their first ever stays with the 12 American families.  Besides having the chance to talk about themselves with their temporary parents, they had great times testing new foods like pancakes and waffles, playing video games with the children, and listening to music and watching movies in a new but very relaxed atmosphere.  The students described their experiences as “perfect, awesome, comfortable, cultural and an exchange” – which was documented in one of the many posters they produced on the Camp.

They bused over to SENAC in the morning to finish up their video projects with technical assistance from SENAC’s IT staff and came back to the Consulate for a tour of the visa section and presentations on the Youth Ambassadors program and our Alumni network.  They then headed home with their host families although more than half of them ended up at an impromptu potluck dinner.

Access Camp: Celebrations and Bittersweet Ate Ja’s

With smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes, the 30 students and their Youth Ambassador mentors had to say goodbye to each other and all the Consulate and partners who had made their week in Sao Paulo one of the greatest moments of their lives. 

At Associacao Alumni – our constant companion for youth programs -- CG Bill Popp made closing remarks, thanking our many partners for their invaluable and irreplaceable support and congratulating the students on their accomplishments. 

RELO Maria Snarski then introduced the “corporate” teams to present their videos, all of which showed a level of imagination and creativity we have come to expect from the Access students, and receive their certificates.

As they prepared to take those planes, trains and automobile back home, they signed each others’ group photo, took countless pictures, embraced and said not good-bye but see ya soon.