She will advocate for the access of underprivileged Brazilians to the world through international exchanges; her lecture will address the values of language in the NGO's mission.
The CEO and founder of Soul Bilíngue, Ariane Noronha, is delivering her first international lecture today. As the sole representative from Brazil at the 17th Annual Languages Canada Conference in Vancouver, Canada, she will advocate for access to the world for low-income Brazilians through international exchange. Her lecture, "The Values of Language in Soul Bilíngue's Mission of Change," will be delivered to Canadian government representatives, exchange companies, and over 200 schools nationwide.
The conference runs until March 2nd. The founder of Soul Bilíngue is one of the key speakers on the second day of the event. In an era of technology and new ways of learning a language, her speech holds strategic significance: to demonstrate to everyone how her story and those of hundreds of young people have been and are being transformed by an international experience.
"I will seek opportunities to make Brazil bilingual and advocate for international access and the democratization of English for low-income youth from public schools. I came from a public school, I am low-income, and the language transformed my life," she says.
Ariane was born in Guararema, a city in São Paulo with 31 thousand inhabitants, and only learned the language during a nanny exchange in the United States. The daughter of a manicurist and a warehouse assistant founded the NGO in 2017 in the municipality of Mogi das Cruzes (SP); upon returning, she transformed from her experience abroad.
In 2023, Soul Bilíngue was voted the best small-scale social organization (budget of up to R$ 500 thousand) and one of the top 100 in the country by the Best NGOs Award. Through the institution, she has already visited nine countries.
"We are the generation of artificial intelligence. Not speaking English is a social problem that Brazil needs to solve. The invitation (to the conference) is a recognition and an opportunity to argue that this is a collective mission and that Soul Bilíngue can lead this transformation," she asserts.
The School Census shows that more than 2.2 million people start high school annually in Brazil. Of this total, 87% attend public schools, an environment incapable of retaining 35% of those who drop out in the following months, according to Todos pela Educação (All for Education). According to the British Council, only 1% of Brazilians are fluent in the language, and only five out of ten can communicate minimally.
Canada
For 22 years, driven by quality of life, Canada has been the preferred destination for Brazilians seeking international exchange opportunities, according to the Selo Belta 2023 Survey. However, an average investment of 8.3 thousand dollars is required, a value entirely out of reach for low-income Brazilian youth.
The conference, organized by Languages Canada, a group with more than 200 affiliated language schools, features plenaries, lectures, and professional development workshops on academic leadership, program innovation, management, marketing and recruitment, student experience, and well-being, among other topics.
"My lecture will be about transformation and social impact and will discuss pathways to make the world more diverse and less unequal jointly. The invitation is a huge opportunity for these companies to see the potential of Brazilian youth," says Ariane.
Soul Bilíngue
Soul Bilíngue is located in Mogi das Cruzes (SP) and operates in the 20 states of North, Northeast, and Southeast Brazil with a gamified program that teaches English to young people aged 18 to 26, exclusively from public education and with a per capita income of up to 2 minimum wages.
The social technology developed by the NGO encourages students to study, provides emotional support through volunteer psychologists, and connects them to a network of over 250 individual mentors - Brazilians and native English speakers - around the world.
With separate weekly classes, mentorship, psychological support, and scholarships for the most committed, Soul Bilíngue has directly impacted more than 3 thousand people. By the end of 2023, the institution will reach 80 low-income exchange students in Australia, South Africa, Canada, the United States, England, Ireland, Malta, and New Zealand.
The program accepts applications twice a year and lasts for 22 weeks.
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