Last night, my boyfriend and I went to a fair about graduate schools all over the world (www.topuniversities.com). While he was distracted looking for pamphlets and business cards of the universities he likes the most, I was busier looking at the incredible amount of people just like us: young middle class Venezuelans whom just left the university looking not only for a studying opportunity but rather for a way – any way – that could let them get out of here.
Many didn’t care if it was Spain, New Zeland, or the United States as long as they could apply for a scholarship that could give them a chance to experience some valuable time on a foreign land. Plus, during seminars, the most frequent asked question out loud or inside everyone’s mind was about job placements and possibilities of staying over there once we finish the Master, the MBA or the PhD even, depending on the case. We were also impressed to see this fair turning into some sort of “old friends meeting centre”. We met loads of old friends and former classmates considering just like us, the possibility of at least a couple of years abroad at graduate school. We didn’t know till last night that they were so many like us, so many aware of the TOEFL dates and the needed GRE or GMAT scores. Maybe my older brothers attended to similar very crowdie fairs when Chavez was not the president of Venezuela, but I’m sure there was something different about the one last night: the determination you could feel in the air about making a plan without a returning ticket. Most of them are not looking for some good studying opportunity so they can come back home more prepared and give back that knowledge to the society they were raised in. I’m pretty sure that last night, at those hotel conference rooms filled with hoped faces of many similar young adults, was the start something we call “Brain drain”.
Many didn’t care if it was Spain, New Zeland, or the United States as long as they could apply for a scholarship that could give them a chance to experience some valuable time on a foreign land. Plus, during seminars, the most frequent asked question out loud or inside everyone’s mind was about job placements and possibilities of staying over there once we finish the Master, the MBA or the PhD even, depending on the case. We were also impressed to see this fair turning into some sort of “old friends meeting centre”. We met loads of old friends and former classmates considering just like us, the possibility of at least a couple of years abroad at graduate school. We didn’t know till last night that they were so many like us, so many aware of the TOEFL dates and the needed GRE or GMAT scores. Maybe my older brothers attended to similar very crowdie fairs when Chavez was not the president of Venezuela, but I’m sure there was something different about the one last night: the determination you could feel in the air about making a plan without a returning ticket. Most of them are not looking for some good studying opportunity so they can come back home more prepared and give back that knowledge to the society they were raised in. I’m pretty sure that last night, at those hotel conference rooms filled with hoped faces of many similar young adults, was the start something we call “Brain drain”.