Guilherme is a fifth-year medical student at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in the city of Belo Horizonte, south-eastern Brazil. In August he will be travelling to Rotterdam to attend a one-semester programme in research training in Health Sciences at NIHES-Erasmus MC. Guilherme is one of several undergraduate students throughout Brazil to be awarded a Science without Borders scholarship.
The 24-year-old became aware of the programme during an inspiring conversation with the director of the university hospital and a staff member of the medical faculty’s international relations office. And now that he has been accepted he is keen to make a start.
Despite gaining experience in a number of different specialties over the past 5 years, Guilherme feels he would like to see more in the way of research. The programme at Erasmus will not only help fill this gap but also feed his interest in evidence-based medicine. He finds it important that medical students broaden their horizons and learn and understand the values of scientific methods.
About Science without Borders – SwB
Science without Borders is a large-scale scholarship programme created and financed by the Brazilian government. It offers Brazilian top students the opportunity to study at a higher education institution in the Netherlands or to carry out research there. Grants are allocated at three levels: bachelors, PhD and post-doctoral.
About the Netherlands Institute for Health Sciences – NIHES
The Netherlands Institute for Health Sciences (NIHES) is an alliance of leading Dutch universities and research institutes that collaborate on quantitative medical and health research. In our Master of Science programmes and short courses, we provide graduate and postgraduate research training in quantitative medicine and the health sciences. We have five core disciplines – Epidemiology, Clinical Epidemiology, Genetic Epidemiology, Public Health, and Medical Informatics – and four key partners: Erasmus University Rotterdam, the University of Amsterdam, the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, and the Netherlands Cancer Institute.
Fernanda Mezzomo Collares is a 25 year old student from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul.
Gilson Gabriel Viana Veloso, a 22 year old fifth-year Medicine student at the Pythagoras College in the city of Montes Claros, southeastern Brazil.
Laura Pletsch Borba is a 22-year-old medical student, from Porto Alegre, Brazil. She attends Pontifical Catholic University from Rio Grande do Sul, situated in her hometown.