A Whole New World

Tawanda Cummings is going places in life. One of those places happened to be the U.S. Consulate General in Brazil.

A communications senior, Tawanda possesses a great work ethic and lofty goals for a career in public affairs. After researching internship opportunities abroad, she landed a gig through the State Department as a public affairs intern at the United States Consulate in Rio de Janeiro last spring. Although she had never stepped foot outside the United States before, she boarded the plane for a new job and a new adventure.

Working in the Public Affairs section, Tawanda handled projects for the Press and Information Office and the Cultural Affairs Office. One of her main roles was developing content and updating the Consulate’s blog for American citizens visiting or living in Brazil.

The timing of her internship meant that she shared a lot of information and resources related to the summer 2016 Olympics and Paralympics. Tawanda also assisted with daily summaries of relevant news for Americans in Brazil, press releases, social media and multimedia projects. In addition, she traveled the city documenting events, including visits from dignitaries.

Fortunately and surprisingly to Tawanda, she did not experience as much culture shock as she originally anticipated. “I had my share of days where I was lost or frustrated by my language barrier, but overall I loved the entire experience and learned so much.” She even found some parallels between Rio and her hometown of New Orleans: “The people are fun, warm and friendly. The weather is also similar, but it’s even more humid, if you can believe it!”

Tawanda’s favorite part was presenting to local schools on topics related to American government and culture. In honor of Women’s History Month, she shared a presentation on laws and issues affecting women in America and Brazil to bilingual high school students. She also conducted a question and answer session about American culture for an after-school English language learning program.

In addition to picking up some Portuguese, Tawanda sharpened her communication skills, particularly in the area of organizational communication. “I am proud of this experience because it allowed me to achieve a dream of mine, to work in an international setting,” says Tawanda. “I improved not only my communications skills set, but also learned so much about the Brazilian culture and foreign affairs.”

Tawanda worked a full time schedule in Brazil, while also continuing progress towards her bachelor's degree in communications by taking 12 hours of online courses through Southeastern's distance education programs. Luckily, she found time to travel and see the other cities in Brazil, including São Paulo, and take a trip to Argentina.

Tawanda will graduate in spring 2017. Right now her path is uncertain, but she knows from this experience that she would like her career in communications to take her global again. She’s also planning to revisit Brazil, “hopefully for Carnival in 2018!”