“Hm... dad? Why are you breaking the AC remote?” He looked up from his arduous task of pressing the remote with pliers - a battle he seemed to be losing miserably - and noticed I was there. “It doesn’t work anymore, I want to see what’s inside”. The curiosity brought a childish glow to his eyes that captivated me. I ran to get stronger tools and, after many failed attempts, the plastic shell broke off, revealing a green...

The whole Earth is attracted to me—oh, how flattering are the laws of gravity. Copying Newton's law of universal gravitation in my notebook during class, I was instantly gravitated (no pun intended) to the subject. The idea that I'm just as powerful as any super-massive celestial body seems ridiculous, but it's true. Learning that marked a new beginning in my journey with physics, where I could explore and understand the universe on a larger and more complex scale. Planets,...

For the last ten years, I've been part of a peculiar community of wannabe Jedis, knights, princes, and princesses—also known as my fencing friends. From my own club teammates I've known my whole life to opponents I befriended in competitions throughout the world, the people in fencing have supported and inspired me in my journey as an athlete and person. They've shown themselves to be my true knights in FIE homologated white armor. At Penn, I'll be able to...

“Is there something to write on the board with?”, I asked hesitantly. The 5 teenagers in front of me exchanged looks, knowing very well I did not understand the reality of their school. A boy got me a maker with no ink, it was all they had. Ok, new plan. We gathered the tables in a circle and started solving problems on messy notebook pages. For a few hours every week, we sat and talked about math. I tutored my students,...

In our bunk-bed whiteboard, my sister taught me what she’d learned in school that day. A 6-year-old me sat on the floor of our room and listened to her explanations: orthography, multiplication, geography. Writing on the board, she stood as confidently as an 8-year-old teacher could be, and I was her avid student. To this day I know “character” is a feminine word in Portuguese, or how many syllables are in otorrinolaringologista (she quizzed me a lot). Although I...

“How can you not enjoy this?!”, I asked my student - another skeptical high-schooler. I made it my mission to convince her physics was more than memorized equations and oversimplified problem-sets. I presented her time dilation and beta-decay, hoping she would find it as cool as I did. I shared the excitement I’d felt when deciphering nuclear medicine books, articles filled with differential equations, or just Youtube videos about relativity. I wanted to show her Physics was everywhere, essential,...

97% complete. I return from the kitchen and my way-too-slow computer still hasn't processed the brain images for my research. I just had coffee with my lab partners where we discussed the latest Netflix shows and trends in PET imaging research—you know, the usual. I sit at my computer trying to decipher the nuclear reactions I'll need for my paper later while I wait. C'mon, I have to run. 98% complete. I check the time every 2 minutes. I don't want to...

My eyes were fixated on Sartre’s “Existentialism is a Humanism”. Reading this book, I had my sense of traditional morality ripped from my mind and destroyed—metaphysically, at least. I was deep into the triad of existentialism: abandonment, anguish, and despair. Philosophy classes and readings had sparked my interest in one fundamental question of human existence: what is right? I read Socrates, Descartes, and Sartre, who pointed out the hypocrisy of human actions and pre-established beliefs. Then, they theorized...

Curiosity and engagement: that's what comes to mind when I think of Haverford. That's what I hope comes to mind when someone thinks of me. At Haverford, I see the opportunity to expand on my intellectual interests while getting involved in a like-minded community and impacting the world around me. I'll major in Physics, joining Haverford's community of explorers of our universe in classes such as Computational Physics. I'll also participate in groundbreaking research, such as working with Professor Masters...

Brazilian Literature: "The Shape of Bones", Daniel Galera; "The Continent", Érico Verissimo; "Diary of the Fall", Michael Laub; "Ursula", Maria Firmina dos Reis; "Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas", Machado de Assis; "The Alienist", Machado de Assis; "Happy Old Year: An Autobiography", Marcelo Rubens Paiva; "S. Bernardo", Graciliano Ramos; "As Meninas", Lygia Fagundes da Silva. International Literature: "Oedipus Rex", Sophocles; "Fahrenheit 451", Ray Bradbury; "1984", George Orwell; "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close", Jonathan Safran Foer; "The Sorrows of Young Werther", Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; ...

Feminism: "Women who Run with the Wolves", Clarissa Estés; "In the Name of Honor", Mukhtar Mai; "Do not Go Gentle", Futhi Ntshingila; "Putafeminista", Monique; "Half a Yellow Sun", "Purple Hibiscus", "Americanah", Chimamanda Adichie; "Everything Good Will Come", Sefi Atta. Brazilian: "História da Riqueza do Brasil", Jorge Caldeira; "Lockdown" (Estação Carandiru), Drauzio Varella; "Barren Lives", Graciliano Ramos; "Segundo Tempo", Michel Laub; "Covil do Diabo", Júlio Rosa. Classics: "Lysistrata", Aristophanes; "Animal Farm", George Orwell; "The Metamorphosis", Kafka; "Brave...

Podcasts: Café da Manhã (Folha de São Paulo); President of the Week (Folha de São Paulo); Today, Explained (Vox). Newspapers & Magazines: Vox; The Economist; El País; Boca de Rua; Folha de São Paulo; Nexo Jornal; Gaúcha ZH; Metro; Estadão. Fencing: International Fencing Federation magazine, Cyrus of Chaos (Instagram/channel); Sydney Saber (Instagram/channel).

Museums, Exhibits, and Cultural Centers: Claudia Andujar: the Yanomami Fight, Letizia Battaglia: Palermo (photography exhibitions at Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo, Brazil); Permanent Archive, Afro-Atlantic Stories (São Paulo Museum of Art); Degas, Danse, Dessin: A Tribute to Degas (Musée d'Orsay in Paris); Musée de l'Orangerie impressionist and post-impressionist archives; Being Modern: MoMA in Paris (Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris); Marie Curie: the first woman at the Panthéon (Pantheón, Paris); Museum of Broken Relationships (Zagreb,...

2 AM. I get a text: “Prove x.0=0”. I’d created a math monster. I remember when Lucas and I first met. I nervously entered his classroom, ready to improvise my first ever math class. I’d had the idea of starting an olympiad study group in a public school a long time before, but from talking to the school on Wednesday to starting classes on Friday, I’d only had days to prepare. I felt out of place, not knowing...

All my life, I've hopped from one community to another. From the physics lab to busy schooldays, from fencing tournaments to olympiad tutoring, each one represents a part of me. To Columbia's bustling campus, I can take them all with me. I'll major in Physics, continuing to explore the endless possibilities from classical mechanics to particle physics. I also hope to participate in groundbreaking research with Columbia’s Experimental Gravity Group on detection of gravitational waves. With Columbia's interdisciplinarity through...

The whole Earth is attracted to me—oh, how flattering are the laws of gravity. Copying Newton's law of gravitation in my notebook during class, I was instantly attracted (no pun intended) to the subject. The idea that I'm just as powerful as any super-massive celestial body seems ridiculous, but it's true. I could understand so much because of it: bodies falling, planets' orbit, formation of stars. It was everywhere, essential, neverending—as was Physics for me. As I advanced...

All my life I've hopped from one community to another. From the physics lab to busy school days, from fencing tournaments to olympiad tutoring, each of them represents a part of me. At Lafayette, I can keep on developing all of them. I'll major in Physics, continuing to explore the endless possibilities in classes from Mechanics to Applications of Quantum Theory. I'll also participate in groundbreaking research, such as working with Professor Nice on neutron star and pulsars research, or...

Discipline, muscle mass, a fully stamped passport: fencing has given me it all. But its greater gift to me was something else: the people. I met my chosen family of socially dysfunctional nerds because all of us, at some point, wished to be a knight or a Jedi. We spent 20 hours a week poking each other with (usually) non-harmful weapons. We traveled the world, sharing unbelievable adventures and weird foods. I cried on their shoulders, and they cried on mine....