Lily Wu, CGIS Peer Advisor: Can you introduce yourself, please?
Bryce Kilburn: My name is Bryce Kilburn, I use he/him pronouns, and I am a rising senior studying Communications and Media. I went on the GCC: Global Blackness in Brazil program in May, 2024.
LW: What made you interested in studying abroad versus doing another semester at U-M?
BK: As a Communications and Media major, I’ve always wanted to be able to communicate completely and efficiently. A big part of communicating with people is understanding people. Ever since high school, I’ve wanted to travel. I was supposed to do an exchange in Germany, but COVID affected those plans. In my freshman year of college, I did an internship in Australia, and after that, I was obsessed with understanding new cultures, new people, and new places. When you’re in one place for your whole life, you don’t really know everybody else’s world—and it’s different from seeing it on screen.
LW: How did you get interested in the program?
BK: I wanted to learn more about the black diaspora. I’m biracial; my mom’s black and my dad’s white. I’m always eager to learn more about my culture, whether that be African-American or Afro-Brazilian or African in general.
LW: What was a typical day in your life like over there? What was your day to day schedule?
BK: Pretty busy. My roommate and I lived in a hotel, and we’d wake up around 6:30 AM and walk to our Portuguese language class with CET. We had that two times a week. Sometimes we did day trips, cooking classes, museum trips, history courses, geography courses. Toward the end of the trip, we took a two-day trip to a village of 10 families, only 98 people—they called us the 11th family. A typical day would end around 5 or 6 PM.
LW: Did you have free time after program activities?
BK: That’s one thing I wish the program did differently. Having our free time at night, we had to be aware of safety—that counteracted some of us wanting to explore, as tourists in that time of day. I did feel safe in our area, though.
LW: Are there any local activities you’d recommend?
BK: Yes, a longtime friend of our professor, Dr. Freida Ekotto [Department of Afroamerican and African Studies], ran this museum out of her house. That was an eye-opening discussion. That was the moment that we really opened up about our experience seeing the black struggle in Brazil. We also went to a women and children’s shelter, and the owner discussed how she helps the people who come in. Also, we saw artifacts in the Afro-Brazilian Museum, which was beautiful, along with the parks around it. As for not-so-local activities, some friends and I took a six hour bus ride to Rio once and stayed for two days. We went up Sugarloaf Mountain, took a nine hour boat ride around Rio, went to the beaches.
LW: How was the academic experience different than at U-M?
BK: It was all about engaging in learning, not doing an assignment. I really appreciated that. I feel like we picked up more by meeting and engaging with the people, such as talking with guest speakers. Freida is amazing. She had a lot of connections there. She wanted us to be engaged more than do assignments or papers. She ran our outside activities, and CET ran our classes.
Before going to Brazil in the spring, we had to take a winter semester course, as well. It was a deep dive into blackness in all of Brazil, not just Sao Paulo. We looked at history and films, and broke off into groups to study an aspect of Brazil. My group covered sports in Brazil, while others did cultural dances, art, food, hair. It was great to present to each other.
LW: What was the housing like?
BK: It was very nice. All the students live together on different floors of a hotel, breakfast is provided every morning. We submitted roommate preference forms, and I got my pick. I know my friends did, too.
LW: Did you know anyone in the program before going?
BK: I did. I went with three of my close friends, but I also met so many amazing people that I still talk to almost every day. It was a good group.
LW: Is there a story or an anecdote that you’d like to share that still sticks with you?
BK: One day, we went to the favelas, and we met with an all-girls dance school, a sort of afterstudy school. They danced for us and then gave us hugs, crying, speaking Portuguese—they said they were so inspired that we came to see them. They said they aspire to be able to travel and to be able to learn. They also told us that they were inspired by our curly hair; they’re often forced to wear their hair straight. It was an emotional moment.
LW: What are you most proud of doing while you were?
BK: I’m most proud of speaking my mind. I was passionate about that trip. Originally, the program was supposed to bring us to Bahia. The area that we were based in was a predominantly white Brazilian area. Afro-Brazilian culture was not super prominent in Sao Paulo. We had to venture out to see the African diaspora; in Bahia, their culture is so prominent and so lively, in the food, fashion, everything. A lot of us were disheartened by what we saw, but we learned so much, seeing the African diaspora’s struggle. We learned so much about things we take for granted, and I’m proud of our group speaking our minds that Bahia should’ve been included in the program.
LW: If you’re willing to share, do you feel that there's any part of your identity that shaped your experience abroad?
BK: For sure. Being half black, I had moments when I was surprised, shocked, saddened. In Brazil, they base ethnicity on color alone. They don’t care what your parents are. In Brazil, I was white. In general, the program opened my eyes to see other people’s situations. It was definitely emotional to see black struggle so prominent. All of us were coming, having taken a course about global black excellence, celebrating amazing culture—but we were definitely hit with some sad times, like when we were in the favelas and villages, seeing less fortunate people and not being able to do anything. They would say that our presence was enough, but we never felt like it was. We wanted to cancel some of our trips and donate the money.
LW: What was the biggest challenge you faced while abroad?
BK: I would say the language barrier. It’s definitely survivable, but only 5% of Brazilians speaks English and it seems like less than that. But I found that everyone was nice when you didn’t know the language, they just looked at you blankly. We lucked out a few times with strangers who would help us and stay with us until we figured everything out.
Safety wasn’t horrible, but we were constantly reminded of it. We were advised to not be on our phones outside, to wait in the lobby instead of outside for an Uber. I remember I was in an Uber at night, we were stopped at a red light, and I was on my phone in the backseat. The driver typed a message to me and translated it saying, put your phone down, because people bash windows of Ubers to take phones at red lights.
LW: Do you have any advice for balancing your time alongside the program activities, taking time to relax?
BK: Every ounce of our time there was used. The pace of activity was fast, and we got pretty tired because we were doing stuff constantly. If we weren’t in class, we were somewhere. I tried to be consistent and give myself time for self-care. I tried to keep a good sleep schedule. Having a roommate is good, to keep each other accountable, to go out together, and we made sure to get breakfast every day.
LW: What do you think you'll remember most about your experience in 20 years?
BK: I think I’ll remember the bonds that we created. We all found a way to relate to each other during the trip and it was a really personal experience for a lot of us. We had deep discussions about how all this information was affecting us personally. I still talk to some of these people all the time, and I came out of the experience considering Freida my mentor. She’s so experienced: she was born in Cameroon, raised in Switzerland, came to the US and learned English from the ground up. It’s so inspiring that someone could do that and teach us more about the world.
LW: Is there anything you’d change about the program?
BK: I think location is the biggest thing; my professor wanted to include Bahia as well. I’d have loved more free days to explore, too, as the museums closed very early. We only had three or four,
LW: If you’re comfortable sharing, did you receive any scholarships or funding help?
BK: The LSA Scholarship and the GCC Scholarship covered pretty much everything.
LW: Was there anything else that you wanted to add about your experience in mind?
BK: I would recommend that for courses like this, going to countries so short of English speakers, take Portuguese minicourses before going instead of starting when you’re there. I also wish I knew to bring heavy duty bug repellent. I got dengue fever in the last two days of the trip and actually fainted in the airport, right at baggage claim, and was sick for a month. Be sure to pack your malaria pills. And don’t pack five bathing suits like we all did, thinking that Sao Paulo is like Rio, close to the water. There is not a beach nearby.
Have questions for Bryce? Reach out to him at kilbryce@umich.edu.
