A young man who grew up in a rural area of the Federal District goes to study in North Carolina in the United States, after being approved and receiving a scholarship that is approved by only 1% of applicants. Wanghley Soares, 19, is traveling in August of this year to study electrical and computer engineering at Duke University, one of the world’s top higher education institutions.
Growing up in the rural area of Brasilia, the young man traveled nearly 200 kilometers a day to go to school. “Given my humble origins, it was very difficult to reconcile studies in the countryside. Only two or two and a half hours on the bus. Notepads, pens and other items, whether reused from previous years or my parents bought what they could,” he says.
From Miunca to North Carolina
Wanghley Soares grew up on a farm called Miunça, which is located in the PAD-DF (Province Directed Federal Settlement Program) area and is known to be a producer of pigs. The parents, from Minas Gerais, are farm administrative assistants and an unemployed community health agent.
In his childhood, the couple said that Wangley learned to read when he was three, that chiefs even hired a tutor to teach him and other children. The young man studied at Escola Classe Lamarão, near PAD. He loved reading and memorizing the names of plants and their medicinal uses, as well as wondering about everything. “From the reason the sky is blue to the reason for our existence.”
His early adolescence was also marked by the time when Wangley’s teachers nominated him for a highly capable psychological test, which confirmed his talent. At the age of fourteen, he was approved to attend the technical course in integrated informatics in secondary school at the IFB (Federal Institute of Brasilia), when he began to realize that, with much effort combined with knowledge, he could go far in his studies.
“I would get up at 5 a.m. to get to campus at 7:30 a.m. and only be able to come home at the end of the day, around 9 p.m., travel about 200 kilometers and take an interstate bus to and from, which was the cost for me and my family to pay it,” he explains in detail. Since he spent the whole day at the institute, the library served as a second home. There, the young man reads the contents of the class, studied about university entrance exams, and topics ranging from quantum mechanics to artificial intelligence.
approvals
A major outcome of this effort came at the end of high school, when Wanghley was approved in the selection process for four Brazilian universities: UnB (University of Brasilia), Unicamp (University of Campinas), University of São Paulo (University of São Paulo) and UFMG (University of Minas). Federal District).
Unlike the parents, who believed that their son was trading the right for the unknown, Wangley decided not to enroll in any Brazilian college to try to succeed abroad. “These are great universities that appeal to me, but I discovered the opportunity to study abroad through an approved program in Aeronautical Engineering in Florida. I was one of three selected from over a thousand candidates.”
Two factors motivated the choice more: a passion for research and innovation, which is believed to garner more investment and interest outside of Brazil, and the possibility of joining areas they could explore together on an American university course. “Because I couldn’t pay for any exams, I started looking up how to get help,” he says.
bags
The help came through the Crimson Brasil Scholarship, an educational consulting firm founded by Harvard alumni with the goal of advising the student throughout the journey toward admission to leading universities in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Wanghley faced a selection process in which only two people were selected, 1.1% of all applicants, and he was one of those selected.
The student received the full course schedule for the selection process, mentor support, and tutoring for standardized tests and interviews. One of the selection criteria for the selected university, Duke, was a personal essay. For this, he made more than 80 copies until he reached the final text, which summarized who Wangley is in a text of 650 words.
The young man received the most coveted approval this year, when Duke University announced his name as one of the new students invited to the course beginning in August, and was awarded a scholarship to help with costs. He celebrated, “It was unique news!” The consent letter was read with the parents and the sister transferred. Everything was captured on video:
But Wangley yearns for more. Defining himself as an inventor, social entrepreneur and “problem solver”, he wants to grow in academia, and stand out in research that combines technology and health. One of the young man’s ongoing research is a device that “detects and tracks” neurodegenerative diseases, mapping human movement starting with hand movement to distinguish between healthy people and people with disease.
“I am what I am thanks to the research and the education and the opportunities that both have afforded me. If today I can study in another country, something I never thought of before, it is thanks to that, and above all, it shows that people like me can – in the surrounding and rural areas – Go above and beyond and achieve great flights, even with difficulties.”
“Friendly zombie guru. Avid pop culture scholar. Freelance travel geek. Wannabe troublemaker. Coffee specialist.”
