MAST PROGRAM

MAST PROGRAM


Autobiography


I was born in Uberaba, 1980. Uberaba is located in Minas Gerais State.
My mother was a dentist (she died in September 2001) and my father is a businessman (he works in a collection office). I have two sisters (the youngest one is studying to get in the Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte. Another one is studying law in Ouro Preto. These both cities are located in Minas Gerais State.
I grew up in Boa Vista, capital of Roraima State, it’s located in Amazon region. My father always had a farm in Boa Vista which he raised cattle (dairy and beef), but it was just a domestic raise. I always went there with him because I liked to work on the farm.
In my vacation (December to February), I went to my grandfather’s farm. I went there to work with animals and help him in other works. There were dogs, swine, horses, dairy and beef cattle. I spend all my vacation there. Unfortunately, my grandfather died in 1999.
I decide studying veterinary and I’m graduating next year in the Federal University of Viçosa, one of the best agrarian Brazilian universities. During my course I became more interested in raising cattle, mainly beef cattle. Since December 2002 I have worked at the University Department of beef cattle and I usually help my classmates to work in a program agreement with Nestlé. When they go to the farms I help them to do their works. I also have worked with graduated and pos-graduated students helping them with their experiments.
During academic life I have had some opportunities to work with bovines. I also had many chances to make some surgeries in bovines (castration, cutting off horns and ruffian) so it helped me to get more interest in bovine raise.
I always wanted to study and work in United States, but I never had any opportunity. When I heard about the Mast program, I wanted to make my enrolment as soon as I could. Then I watched a Professor Boren’s speech, in which he explained about it in details. I really would like to work and study in the United States of America in order to get knowledge and experience so that I could use them in my future job in Brazil.
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Christiano D’amico França da Silva