August 23, 2012

Brazilian Program for Needy Students Helps Remove Financial Barriers to College

Brazilian Program for Needy Students Helps Remove Financial Barriers to College 1

Caio Guatelli for The Chronicle

Rosemir Soares, a 46-year-old mother who works as a secretary and attends university thanks to a Prouni scholarship: "My life has improved already because of this. I got a better job. And I think I can get an even better one after I graduate."

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close Brazilian Program for Needy Students Helps Remove Financial Barriers to College 1

Caio Guatelli for The Chronicle

Rosemir Soares, a 46-year-old mother who works as a secretary and attends university thanks to a Prouni scholarship: "My life has improved already because of this. I got a better job. And I think I can get an even better one after I graduate."

By Andrew Downie

São Paulo, Brazil

Rosemir Soares always wanted to go to university but could never afford the fees. Then she discovered Prouni, a scholarship program of the Brazilian government that has guaranteed a college education for more than one million low-income students since it began, in 2005.

Now she is in the penultimate semester of a three-year history program at the Faculdade de São Paulo, and she still can't believe her luck.

"It was just what I needed to start studying,"