CSC Assignment in Brazil — Just 10 Days Away!

Steven Chamberlin
Jul 25, 2017 · 3 min read

Last summer (2016) I applied for an IBM sponsored community service program called “Corporate Service Corps” (CSC), where my company (IBM) would send me along with a team of other IBMers from all over the world to work in a developing country for a month on a pro-bono assignment. Since I love traveling and learning about other cultures, coupled with the opportunity to use work time to make a positive influence in the community, this sounded like an amazing opportunity. I had applied in the past and been rejected, but in March of this year, I was pleasantly surprised to receive news of my acceptance! The operations manager wanted to know of my availability for an assignment in August in Brazil. I had put “Latin America” as my region of choice, because of my familiarity with Spanish and some traveling that I have done in Mexico and Peru, but Brazil was a country I was not very familiar with. My mind immediately went to the famous landscape of Rio de Jainero with the “Christ the Redeemer” statue:

Rio de Jainero

But upon further investigation into the details of my placement, I learned that I would be working from Campinas, Brazil, in the state of Sao Paulo:

Picture of Campinas, Brazil

Campinas is not too far from Rio — less than an hour plane ride away — so I will make plans to visit Rio, probably after the program (though some other program participants on a tighter time budget are considering weekend options).

However Campinas has some interesting features as well, though it is not near any beach. It is close to Sao Paulo — a mega-city of 20 million, the largest city in Brazil and one of the largest cities in the world. The team will be flying in there and some of the early arrivers (including myself) will have a brief chance to check out the city before taking a bus to Campinas (which is a couple of hours away by bus). Campinas is also known as the “Silicon Valley” of Brazil. This is notable because I also live in Silicon Valley here in the United States, so it will be interesting to compare. Like most centers of innovation, there is a solid university presence in Campinas. Most notably, Campinas is home to a famous university called UNICAMP — from what I’ve read, it is one of the best universities not only in Brazil but in all of South America. There are also a lot of tech companies including IBM in nearby Hortolandia, which we learned is the 5th largest IBM lab in the world. We might get a chance to visit it.

Stay tuned for more posts as the date approaches, including more details on my assignment, my team, and my thoughts on learning Portuguese!

#IBMCSC Brazil

#CSCBrasil22

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