I was born on the
smallest inhabited island of Cape Verde. With 64 square kilometers and with
just under 5 thousand inhabitants, Brava Island is considered the most
beautiful in the country.

If the Island’s beauty
attracts tourists from all over the world, the island is known for being quiet
and poor.

This was one of the
reasons I chose AIU to pursue my academic studies. To try in the near future to
help combat the poverty of my Island, and contribute to human, social, economic
and academic development.

Studying the Phases
assigned to me at AIU was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

Life is considered by
many a jigsaw puzzle game. One movie that can be very good or another that can
be very bad. A grotesque or mild summer breeze.

I compare life many
times. Full of surprises, where to walk on the street these days has to be
quick not to be left behind. It’s exactly the feeling I feel after all this
time with AIU.

The perseverance I
learned on my Island where I was born (Brava) and the opportunities AIU offered
me filled me with courage, motivation and goals to succeed in different
situations.

AIU was very important
in my life.

Studying gives a lot
of work! Believe me that I am perfectly aware of the demands that a student may
have. It turns out that this was my job during these last years, it’s my
profession at the moment, and I can not get away from it!

You have to find a way
to seize everything around you to become a man capable of achieving any dreams
and goals. In fact, in a few years you may even give up learning everything the
school teaches you, but you can be sure that without learning, you never
achieve the purpose of achievement! I have strength, and I will always thank
AIU!

For those who want to
study AIU in the future, I have to say:

If you have come here,
dear students, it is because you deserve the congratulations. But today, I
would like to draw attention to one important word that you certainly know:
merit.

When a person achieves
something with merit, it is not because he is intelligent and more capable than
the others around him. To achieve a determined goal with merit is to fight for
it with all the strength and, even if it is in difficulties, not to give up
until reaching it. After all, who do you think would have more merit in a race,
a normal athlete who easily reaches the finish in 30 seconds, or a lame man who
runs sweating his jersey, but can he get there in 30 minutes?

By this I mean that I
do not expect you to be brilliant pupils, or to do the impossible. For many
difficulties you may encounter, do not give up. And, above all, strive. The
greatest reward you can have is to come to the end of the year and receive the
results knowing that you have had all the merit in them.

I
finish by saying: Thanks to AIU!

– João Paulo Gomes Rocha da Silva