Geographical distances are not limiting for those who want to finish a higher education course at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). One such example comes from Luís Gomes, a town about 470 kilometers from Natal. Emanuela Fernanda Ismael, 25, is a student of a degree in Physics in EaD modality, at the UFRN campus that operates in that city. She is about to graduate and this week she realized an old dream: to visit the Central Campus and the labs of the Physics Department.

Last Wednesday (23), Emanuela Fernanda and five other students from the center faced a six-hour trip. In an emotional account, she recalled what she experienced: “we left at two in the morning from Luís Gomes for this visit, and returned at seventeen, everyone exhausted, but with our minds full of new ideas”. The student classified the experience as “very rich”, capable of adding new knowledge and opening new possibilities for teaching.

The Coordinator of the Physics Distance Learning Course, Bruno Canto, says that the idea of making this visitation came from the student and that this mobilized the city hall of Luís Gomes, which allocated a bus, and UFRN’s Distance Learning Department, which got logistical support for the students. They got to know the Mechanics, Electromagnetism, Waves and Optics, and Modern Physics laboratories, which, according to the Professor, served as motivation for the studies and for the search for a master’s or doctorate course.

The Professor of the Physics Department, Edimilson Félix, accompanied the group of students on this scientific outing: “it was a morning of a lot of learning and discoveries, I hope this has motivated the participants and that it becomes recurrent”, he concluded. For Manuela Fernanda, who is an elementary school teacher and has already enrolled in the Professional Master’s course in Physics Teaching at UFRN, there is the certainty that distance education continues with its purpose of democratizing the access to a public and quality university.

Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor at SEDIS/UFRN.