Reunions, debates on career and entrepreneurship, and a sense of belonging underlined the Meeting of Undergraduate Alumni of FGV’s Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE), held at FGV’s Cultural Center on March 25. The event gathered more than 150 guests among alumni, students, professors and employees, and is part of a series of initiatives adopted by the Alumni network to integrate its alumni in the School’s projects.

Darliny Amorim, Alumni coordinator, kicked off the meeting by sharing how the event was created and the important participation of alumni in developing the project. Next, the dean of EBAPE, professor Flávio Vasconcellos, and deputy dean, professor Alvaro Cyrino, welcomed participants and emphasized that the School’s true value lies in the stories of its alumni.

Escaping the traditional event schedule, undergraduate coordinator Yuna Fontoura and two students, Naira and Emmanuel, went over EBAPE’s timeline with a theatrical undertone. Three lecturers were invited to discuss the topics “career” and “entrepreneurship”: Leyla Nascimento (former president of ABRH Nacional), under the theme ‘New career paradigms in Brazil’; Sam H. Leal Fouad (professor at business and law schools in the U.S. and Brazil), who spoke about ‘Global Careers for Brazilians’; and Silvio Meira (professor emeritus of the Center for Information Technology of Recife and associate professor of FGV’s Rio de Janeiro Law School), via videoconference, addressing the theme ‘The challenge of entrepreneurship in Brazil’.

One of the goals of the event was to promote debate on how graduates can collaborate with Alumni and which initiatives EBAPE Alumni must develop to assist alumni in their paths and promote engagement, encouraging their involvement in the School’s projects. To achieve such goals, Carmen Migueles, professor of Culture of Organizations, spoke about Sharing Economy and Collaboration Networks and, at the end of the presentation, proposed a themed activity that made Alumni reflect on its effective participation in the Network.