Name: Clara Brito
House: Hawksley I
Hello everyone, my name is Clara and I’m an international student from Brazil. I come from a small state on the east coast of Brazil called Pernambuco. I speak Portuguese, English, and understand a little bit of Spanish. The first time I came to the United States was in 2013 when I was 11 years old. Since then I knew I wanted to study and live here. I told my parents that it was something that I really wanted and they started to save money and make arrangements for my trip. I’ve had English classes my whole life so learning it was not a huge struggle, something that helped me a lot was watching movies in English with the subtitles on.
I left Brazil by myself at 17 years old in December of 2019, and I had plans to visit that summer but COVID happened. I was very sad that I wasn’t able to visit, but it helped me get closer to the friends I have here. I heard of SSF through my mom’s friend, which is funny because now her daughter and I are roommates at Hawksley I. I’m currently majoring in biology at Santa Fe College, and I plan on transferring to the University of Florida after I get my AA. My main goal is to get into UF’s Medical School so that I can pursue my dream of becoming a surgeon. I still haven’t decided between trauma or plastic surgery, but I still have a lot of time to decide. After I am done with school I want to live in Canada and visit Brazil every summer.
I don’t really have any hobbies but I enjoy traveling, I’ve had a passport since the age of two and my parents have taken me to over 32 countries. They have always said that they would rather spend money on travels than material things and I agree with that mindset. My favorite trip was when I went to France with my mom for my 15th birthday, that was my second time there so we got to do things that tourists don’t usually have time to do. I liked it because it was the first trip that I was completely in control of and we didn’t have to rush from one museum to another all the time. Traveling is a big part of my life and I plan on keeping the tradition with my own family one day.
