Brock\u2019s Fall Convocation<\/a> on Friday, Oct. 16 \u2014 and she did so with the highest grades in her program.<\/p>\n\u201cIt was a surprise,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have thought I had the highest average, especially as an immigrant. English is not my first language.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia took seven years to finish her undergraduate degree in Brazil as she worked her way through university by teaching English and Portuguese.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter I finished my degree I wanted to study more,\u201d she said. \u201cAt that point, I had no idea I could even come to Canada. Because I had always been teaching English, I enrolled in a specialized program for teaching language and literature.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was at this time that Garcia discovered her love for the written word.<\/p>\n
Her professors were supportive as she began looking for opportunities to do her master\u2019s in Brazil, but funding for research was scarce. That\u2019s when she began to look abroad and discovered Brock.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Brock, the program was so very diversified and interesting,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cI felt it was a very interdisciplinary kind of program in terms of faculty. We have faculty doing different kinds of research. It is also a smaller program, so you get to know professors and have access to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia came to Canada with her wife, Lara Costa, who is now an instructor in Brock\u2019s Women’s and Gender Studies program. While she didn\u2019t face language barriers, there were still cultural differences to adjust to.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a teaching assistant (TA) was very different for me at first,\u201d said Garcia, who has 10 years of experience teaching in Brazil, where universities don\u2019t have lectures or TAs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a great experience, because I got to teach at the only level I hadn\u2019t taught before,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was a very different experience to be able to help people achieve their goals, even in a tiny way, in their first-year English course. It was fun to connect with students from all over and share this experience of being new to something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Studying in Canada hasn\u2019t come without challenges, with Garcia at times facing stereotypes imposed upon international students. But the experience has been overwhelmingly positive and she\u2019s keenly aware of the investment that has been made in her at Brock.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been so many highlights,\u201d she said of her time at the University, which she praised for making her feel like a person rather than just another number.<\/p>\n
Garcia said she felt welcome by both the University and the English Department, and she was appreciative of extra funding and emergency bursaries she was offered during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Now working on her PhD at the University of Western Ontario, Garcia is grateful for the opportunity to give back to others through teaching. Growing up in an area she describes as disadvantaged in southern Brazil, she believes in the importance of good education.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only reason I\u2019m here today is because I had access to good public education,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to give back and it had never occurred to me that I could give back in the post-secondary system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For Julia Garcia (MA \u201920), the road to her master\u2019s degree has been a long one, spanning two continents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":68813,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119,188,55,37,1,4],"tags":[3333,3574,159,9127,76,30,9615],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68814,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68812\/revisions\/68814"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}