This Tuesday (27th) afternoon, employees of the Department of Distance Education of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte participated in the Virtual Visit of Quality of Life at Work, an action developed by the “Living in Harmony – Quality of Life” Program at Work”, by the Dean of People Management at the University (Progesp/UFRN).
For about 90 minutes, employees were able to expose, in a virtual meeting room, their daily realities in light of the challenges posed by the pandemic, both in their professional and personal lives. According to Angélica Gil, a psychologist at the Program and responsible for the activity, the objective of the initiative is to promote an atmosphere of well-being in the units, seeking to accommodate the demands of the servers.
For the UFRN Distance Education Secretary, Carmem Rêgo, participating in initiatives like this, in times of telework, collaborates with the maintenance of the SEDIS team unit, which “at no time, suspended the execution of activities, and which did not measure efforts to dedicate themselves to fulfilling all the tasks that multiplied throughout the pandemic”. Carmem Rêgo took the opportunity to praise the performance of all employees and recognize the power to overcome challenges.
In addition to the experience with the psychologist, in the programming, there was also music, with Bethowen Padilha, from the Audiovisual Sector at SEDIS. Ana Patrícia de Almeida Lima, administrator of the Quality of Life at Work Division (DQVT/UFRN), highlighted that the virtual visits will continue until they can be carried out in person and safely. To learn more about the Program, go here.
In the Sertão region of Paraibano, the city of Triunfo is located. That’s where Gessica Tamara Neves Rolim de Paula Romano lives, a 28-year-old girl who has just fulfilled an old dream: to graduate in Public Administration. The distance learning course was completed at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) in Luís Gomes, in Alto Oeste Potiguar, some 68 kilometers away from where she lives.
Born in Fortaleza, capital of Ceará, Gessica Tamara says that she always dreamed of graduating in Higher Education: “I aligned myself on three bases that my husband transmitted to me, first to analyze; then plan; and, finally, execute. That’s how I was always able to keep my focus”, he highlights, citing the important role of family support in his successful academic trajectory.
Speaking of family, two family losses turned into fuel to overcome any challenges: Gessica’s father and father-in-law died victims of covid-19. She redoubled her dedication to studies as a way to face these events. The effort was rewarded with an academic laurel: “today I feel fulfilled with the course I have chosen and everything becomes possible if you dedicate yourself with your head and heart. I had in mind that studying is the best path to success”.
The bachelor’s degree in Public Administration already has plans for the future: “I intend to continue my academic life with a postgraduate degree. In my professional life, I first have to analyze the current scenario”, she concludes with a feeling of hope for better days, which, according to her, will only be possible due to access to public education.
After nearly 10 years of work as an Agrarian Analyst at the National Institute for Colonization and Agrarian Reform (INCRA), Herbert Nunes Alencar found that he needed to update knowledge that could contribute to his area of work. That was when he decided to take the entrance exam for the Licentiate Degree in Distance Geography, at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), in Macau. The choice of teaching modality was related to the constant work trips.
Currently living in Natal/RN, the roads have always been his main companions: “my work required constant trips to the interior to meet our technical cooperators and demands of the Rural Settlements created by INCRA”. He knew the challenge that would be to organize academic demands according to the time available for studies: “I always tried to get ahead of myself, trying to read the teaching material on vacations prior to the semester, following the orientations of the on-site tutoring”.
Herbert is full of praise when he recalls the relationship he maintained with the collaborators who support the students of the Macau Onsite Support Hub: “I can’t stop talking about the pleasant meetings, they were a real training to weave knowledge and I am very grateful to servers and collaborators, always attentive and helpful”. On his return to Natal, Herbert Nunes accumulated a bag full of new knowledge when he went to face-to-face activities.
So much so that he was one of the five students who received, on July 8, 2021, the academic award, recognition given by UFRN to exemplary performance during the course: “I believe that the award belongs to everyone who is part of UFRN, professors and students, servants and collaborators, to whom I am immensely grateful for their participation, in that vision that we are eternal students”.
The tears contained since the beginning of the Virtual Graduation ceremony, held last Thursday (08), came to the surface when Fabíola Maria Dantas heard her name being announced, during the broadcast of the ceremony, as a laureate for her good performance throughout of the Licentiate Degree in Distance Learning at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) at the Caicó pole.
This was not the first time that Fabiola Dantas had received an academic laurel. When she completed the face-to-face Pedagogy course 16 years ago, she also received this recognition. But the dream of studying Literature and the passion for the Portuguese language remained alive: “there was no Literature course at CERES at that time, so I studied Pedagogy, as I also worked with children and felt called to Education”.
The family formed by teachers represented an additional incentive to pursue this goal. At the age of 19, with a young daughter to raise, she started working in a school with children’s classes. The school routine and entry into the academic environment only reinforced the certainty that she should pursue her goal. After completing two specializations and at 42 years of age, she was able to say: “I have a degree in Distance Learning Languages from UFRN”.
According to Fabíola, reaching the end of the course was not easy, there were weekends and evenings totally dedicated to the course: “I always say that the passion for Literature made me continue without burdens, with three daughters and a double shift as a servant at two schools, I took the entrance exam to see if I could achieve success and here I did”.
Amid the covid-19 pandemic and the conclusion of the EaD Literature course at the Caicó hub, Fabíola Dantas found time to undergo the selection process for a Masters in Education at the State University of Rio Grande do Norte (UERN), and was approved. That’s when she was forced to close the Literature course, but she was encouraged by the staff at the In-person Support Center in Caicó to continue and it worked.
When talking about the academic laurel, she could not contain, once again, the emotion: “this award, for me, is valuable, not for vanity, but to illustrate to my daughters that it is possible to reconcile the life of a woman, a housewife, professional, mother and student in a sexist, patriarchal and unfair society, especially with the minor majorities”.
