Why I am taking this extra course Being a current undergraduate student in Architecture and Urbanism at USP, I believe it is important to understand how urban life works. In the future, I would like to work with urban planning. I intend to create sustainable and comfortable places. In this way, cities can become more pleasant than they are today. To achieve my plans, it is necessary to cross all the features of urban life. This course is a great opportunity to explore the cities around the world and conceive the role that I will have as architect and urban planner in society.

Why I can't afford the fee Currently, I can not afford the Verified Certificate for two main reasons. First of all, my family's financial resources are limited. I am from Ceará, but I have just moved to São Paulo to take my undergraduate degree. At the moment, I am unemployed so, my parents are supporting me here. Moreover, exchange rates have recently increased, which means that the dolar has became to much expansive for me.

How I express my creative side There are many things I would like to talk about, however, I had to choose one of these questions. So, I decided to tell you how I express my creative side. I've been involved in various activities ever since I was a child, as an example, I took ballet classes, theater performances and even played in an orchestra as a clarinetist. Despite this, something was missing in my art and I realized that I had to find a meaningful way to express it. I started to develop ideas and create useful or thoughtful things. Nowadays, the ways I'm expressing myself are theater and craftwork. Because of the theater, I got involved in the direction and production of plays that reflected current themes, as an example, discrimination, censure, mental health issues, and labor exploitation. Most of these plays were performed at the Interdisciplinary Exhibition Youth, Art and Science from Federal Institute of Ceará - an annual event that aims to evaluate the students through theatrical performances based on the school subjects. Alongside with the Interdisciplinary Exhibition Youth, Art and Science, I performed and directed other events with a youth group that I created, called Unshaken. One of the examples being a campaign about mental health and suicide prevention. Each project has its singular difficulties. We had to deal with a small budget, deadlines or too little rehearsing time. Therefore, we had to make up ways to deal with these things, organize ourselves and our schedules in the best way possible. In conclusion, acknowledging the influence of working as a team. We can also connect ourselves with other people through the theater - which makes us learn different points of view on the same question. That's one of the reasons why I love it. As well as theater, craftwork allows us to change our world views and see it through another lens. Beyond that, it makes us look for inventive and useful solutions to a variety of problems. For a while, I wasn’t making any new crafts, but then I moved into a new apartment where I finally could organize my own bedroom. That situation gave me a reinvigorated will to create again. I was excited about it, but I didn't have the right materials and tools. That’s why I had to look for alternative ways to do what I was planning. When I finished, I was filled with satisfaction, because I was able to alter and recycle unused transforming them into art.

Part 2: A personal life experience that has had particular significance for me In 2017, we decided to take part in a campaign that takes place in Brazil annually in September. This campaign is called “Yellow September” and aims to prevent suicide. That year, we chose a date to hold an event with theatrical and musical performances, games and a lecture about the campaign subject. The event had a great impact on the group and the other students, as it highlighted the importance of supporting our colleagues and taking care of mental health. Moreover, we got out of our tiring routine and had fun. Because of the impact the event had had, we did it again in 2018. In the second edition, we let students who were not part of the group perform. This was amazing and very important for our school community. I don't know exactly how to describe the importance that Unshaken have had in my life because I have learned a lot from this group. I developed myself as a leader and person because I had to lead a group with many different people. I have also learned about empathy and why this is so important. In addition, Unshaken has helped me to understand that I can make mistakes sometimes, but it doesn’t define me.

Part 1: A personal life experience that has had particular significance for me In 2016, I was going through a lot of changes in my life. I used to live in a small town called Cascavel, but when I started high school at the Federal Institute of Ceara I had to move to another city. So, I have started to live in Fortaleza, a big city in Brazil. Also, I was in my early teens – a complicated phase for everyone. This were hard times for me because I was feeling lonely and confused. I didn’t really know Fortaleza yet and had few friends at school. Fortunately, some time after school started, I had already made some friends. My new colleagues were also going through a lot. So, we decided to help each other and created a small group called “Unshaken”. At the beginning, we were just seven girls gathering at Friday lunches to talk about the week and share experiences. Bit by bit, the group was growing, and I took over it with a friend. All member of the group - no longer just girls – used to look forward to every Friday. So, we could talk about our weekly achievements and problems and play songs. Also, each week, a different theme was chosen, and one of the members talked about it. It was wonderful to see the growth and relevance that Unshaken was achieving. When I was with those people, I felt welcomed. I also felt able to welcome other people. At the meetings, I have met students from other courses and grades and even people from out of the school, because the project reached many people. Many of them remain as my friends.

Self letter of recommendation (in the third person) Despite living with attention deficit disorder, Larah stands out from her colleagues since she was a child. She has always demonstrated leadership, creativity, innovative thinking and great academic performance. During her studies in Technical High School in Civil Engineering at the Federal Institute of Ceara, she attended to several cultural and social activities. First, she founded a group of young students with common interests. This group – named Unshaken – aimed to create a healthy environment for students through mutual support, music, theater and other. She also led her classmates in various school events. One of these events – named Interdisciplinary Exhibition Youth, Art and Science – aims to evaluate the students through theatrical performances based on the school subjects. Larah took part in this Exhibition three times as co-author, actress and leader. In addition, the nominated student attended to a project as volunteer physics monitor also participated in sports activities, playing handball on her course team and developing research about the health of her schoolmates. Larah also participates in out-of-school activities such as the “Beach Friends” project – which aims to revitalize and clean beaches in her hometown. This shows her concern about the community and the environment. In summary, is a student with skills in several areas. Studying at the University of ******* can be an amazing opportunity to develop her knowledge and abilities.

Academic objectives Some time ago, when I was thinking about college stuff, I decided that I should make the world better through my profession. From that, I figure out that my studies will be based on sustainable development and how to apply it on developing countries. A bachelor's degree from the University of ******* will surely help me with my goals, since Canada is one of the greenest countries around the world. I addition, I will have the opportunity to study at a university that thinks about innovation and that has already graduated several students who still having a huge positive impact through the world.

Why are the sea otter populations declining? (I wrote this text based on two differents points of view about the sea otter populations decline. The first one is a text that defends the idea that this decline has been caused by environmental pollution. The other one is a lecture in which the professor refutes the text arguments.) The professor disagree with the hypothesis that the environmental pollution is the cause of the sea otter populations decline. First, she talked about the idea that the increased levels of industrial chemicals is decreasing the otters resistance to life-threatening infections and thus could be indirectly causing the deaths. The professor pointed that as the deaths can be explained by this idea it can also be explained by predatory activity. After that, she clarified why the orcas can be hunting small animals. Orcas usually hunt big animals, but because of the human activity, the population of its prey have declined. Then, orcas have to start hunting smaller animals. In the end of the lecture, she pointed why the uneven pattern of this decline can be also explained by the predatory activity. Orcas are large animals. Because of it, they are not able to fit in some places. By the way, the places where the otter populations are not declining are the same where orcas can not have space for being.