I spoke at the opening of the EducationUSA fair on Saturday. I try to keep my remarks short, but I did take advantage of the captive audience of more than fifty recruiters from the U.S. to emphasize the fantastic opportunities Brazil offers. Of course, I was preaching to the choir. They came because they expect Brazil to give them great opportunities. But while you need not preach to the choir, you do sometimes need to lead and encourage them. I did that.
EducationUSA fairs are self supporting, i.e. the schools and others who take part pay the full cost. Presumably participants think that the return is worth it. Each Brazilian student brings in around $55,000 in direct benefits into the American economy for each year they are there (not counting all the intangibles and long term), so if a school attracts only one or two it more than pays for the effort. The USG outlay is only for some incidentals and my time, which is free to the USG in this case, since the event was on Saturday when I am not paid.
My pictures are not from the EducationUSA fair. Pictures of a crowd of people gathered around booths in a big hotel space are not remarkable. But across the road from the fair building was an exhibition for patriotic week. Those were interesting pictures, so I include them. The top picture shows the gate to the park. Next is the Brazilian Marine band. The picture below is the convention center where the EducationUSA event was held.
