“My name is Filipo Mór, I am a lecturer and graduate student in Computer Science from Brazil. In 2014 I was awarded a scholarship from the Canadian Government called Emerging Leaders in the Americas Program. This funding allowed me to spend 6 months at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS, working as a visiting graduate student. I chose to do my studies there for several reasons: first, my research interests were aligned to my supervisor’s agenda at Dal; second, what the infrastructure the Faculty of Computer Science had to offer me; and third, the possibility to collaborate not only with my Canadian colleagues, but also with fellow graduate students worldwide! In fact, not only was my research was greatly benefited by my time there, but also my research group, back in Brazil, was too! Also, now I have a much wider network of researchers with similar interest, not only in Canada, but on many different parts of the world. I don’t think that would be possible without spending this time working at Dal.

Maybe my major challenge was the adaptation to the cold weather. When I arrived in Halifax around October, it was warm and sunny everywhere. But soon after it rapidly became to change… I may say that was the snow, and not the cold itself, my biggest problem. Problem that I solved after buying appropriated shoes and jacket.

I think the biggest difference between studying in Canada is the independence you have. Once I heard: “here we don’t feed grad students too often”. The meaning, I came to figured out later: in Canada, you have the freedom to head your efforts on the direction you want, but you have to strive for yourself and balance your working and leisure time.
Finally, the language wasn’t a hindrance at all. Canada is a multicultural country and most Canadians are very understandable when they see you are having trouble with the English. The most important is keep trying, after some weeks you will improve and gain some confidence for sure!”