2007 Education Leadership Award Dinner Speech - Aline Verneck da Silva

Aline Verneck da Silva
Fernand Braudel Institute Reading Circles Graduate
Education Leadership Award Dinner, New York, New York, June 11, 2007

I was born in 1989 in Conceção de Araguaia region of the Amazon, very far from any large cities or towns.  There were not any doctors in our village and I was delivered by my paternal grandpa.  I never knew my mom.

When I was two, my father took my two sisters and me to live with our grandma and aunt in São Paulo.  After a short while my father and sisters returned to the Amazon.  I didn’t see them again for six years.  My grandma was really like a mom to me; she loved me and took care of me.  I felt safe with her but she died when I was nine.  The region where my father lived was very poor and the people were sad and hopeless.  I wanted a better life for myself and I convinced my aunt to let me stay with her in São Bernardo. 

I live on the same street as Fernanda and we both went to the same school.  Our school was very dangerous with drug dealers and violence.  Inside the school the situation was not much better.  The teachers were poorly trained, they often quit and we learned very little in class.  In high school there weren’t any text books and we were far behind in Portuguese and math compared to other schools in the region.  Some days so little instruction went on in class that I wondered why I should go to school at all.  I thought of dropping out.

When my teacher invited me to the Reading Circles I was excited by the idea of hearing great stories, something I have always loved.  I love to hear and learn about interesting adventures and the magic of fantasy.  When I joined Reading Circles I was surprised to have educators who were interested in me and wanted to hear my thoughts.  On my second day of Reading Circles, based on my life experience, I worried whether the educator would show up—but of course she did, and she was there every week for the entire year.

We read The Odyssey by Homer and I was moved by Telemachus, the son of Ulysses.  Telemachus never gave up, and always continued forward on the journey to adult-hood as best he could.  I was inspired by him.

Books and stories I have read have helped me reach decisions in life, especially since I can find few living examples to follow in my community or at home.  Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn taught me about freedom and equality and to question things.  I was also very influenced by The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, a man who taught me that you could have many interests and pursue them all successfully.  

One day I hope to be an historian.  I want to research meaningful events and people and how they influenced history.  I am preparing for the university entrance exams.  I know that I will face many challenges.  But the Reading Circles taught me that heroes and heroines don’t just exist in storybooks.  

I know that I can achieve anything thanks to the support of my aunt, who saved me from the fate of most abandoned children. She never spared any effort to help me in any way that she could.  Right now my aunt can not find work, but she used her small savings to travel to the Amazon over seven days to obtain my birth mom’s signature on travel papers so I could be here this evening.  My aunt traveled seventy-two hours on a bus and, when the road ended, on a donkey, to reach my mom.  My aunt has a lot of Telemachus in her too.  Obrigada.