Miguel Cisneiros, a Bioinformatics student at the Barreiro School of Technology of the Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal (ESTBarreiro/IPS), was one of the young people selected to represent Portugal in the 2020 edition of the Study of the United States Institutes (SUSI) for Student Leaders program from Europe, meanwhile postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic.
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he five-week intensive program, which will take place between the coming months of June and August at the University of South Carolina, is promoted by the Fulbright Portugal Commission and the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, within the framework of the mission to promote mutual understanding between Portugal and the United States of America in the areas of education and science.
Over the course of four weeks, Miguel Cisneiros will have access to a set of seminars and workshops focused on the theme of Active Citizenship, with the last week being reserved for a roadtrip to Washington DC, where he will meet with the remaining participants of the various SUSI programs and visit several symbolic locations in US history.
Representative of undergraduate students in Bioinformatics, Miguel Cisneiros is also director of the newspaper “ESTBrain”, created by the ESTBarreiro/IPS Students Association, having also stood out for the organization of initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion, namely drawing attention for the realities of the LGBT and deaf communities.
“Participating in this program is, for me, a unique opportunity. It is not only an acknowledgment of the work I have developed, but also of the value of my alma mater and polytechnic education in general. I am proud to be able to represent Portugal and IPS at an international level”, he confesses, certain that he will return from this experience in the USA “with more knowledge and new ways to motivate civic involvement and active citizenship in my surrounding community”.
