Warmest Holiday Wishes and a Happy New Year from All at Educaedu

Feliz Natal, Feliz Navidad, Feliz Nadal, Merry Christmas, Wesołych Świąt, Joyeux Noël, 聖誕節快樂, 메리 크리스마스, Շնորհավոր Սուրբ Ծնունդ, С Рождеством, Frohe Weihnachten …!

Joe visiting the cathedral in La Plata, Argentina

Following Educaedu’s expansion into Asia, we have a new addition to the Educaedu group, Joe Byoung Wook, who has recently joined our office in Buenos Aires.  Joe is from Seoul, South Korea and will be responsible for developing the Korean education directory for Educaedu.  Joe states with pride that Korea is among the world’s most technologically-advanced and digitally-connected countries, and Seoul is said to the “tech capital of the world”.
Joe is studying Journalism at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. He is specializing in Media and Film Studies and his life goal is to make movies. Currently Joe is taking a gap year from his studies to work with us in Argentina. He believes that the time he’s going to spend in Latin America will help him with his future work as a film director.
Joe’s favorite sport in baseball.  Baseball is one of the most popular spectator sports in South Korea, and  South Korea is considered one of the best baseball countries in international competition. Joe cheers for his favorite baseball team called LG TWINS.

Favorite movie: Knocking on heaven’s door directed by Thomas Jahn
Favorite novel: Norwegian Wood Murakami Haruki
Favorite food: Samgyeopsal (Korean barbecue)

Welcome Joe!

Prabhu in our office garden

Educaedu is expanding to Asia and as a result of this expansion our team is growing too. Prabhu Mohan Raj has recently joined our team in Buenos Aires as a Content Manager for India.  He proudly admits that India has one of the largest higher education systems in the world hence there are loads of challenges ahead of him to develop the Indian education directory and deliver it to our global community users. Prabhu was born in Bangalore, India’s third most populous city.  Bangalore is home to many of the most well-recognized colleges and research institutions in India. Prabhu graduated from the Bangalore University with a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science and is currently studying to complete a MBA Degree in International Business at Alagappa University. He used to play cricket in the university and his only worry today is whether he can keep playing cricket in Argentina.
Pure at heart and noble in action is his life motto. He aims to live his life to the fullest and to enjoy every moment of it, so when the opportunity to come and work in Argentina presented itself, he had no doubts whether to take it or not. He simply went for it!  Prabhu is an open-minded, curious, cheerful guy who is amused by both Argentina and the cultural melting-pot that is our office, and he hopes to learn a great deal from both.

Favorite song: I’ve got a feeling by Black Eyed Peas
Favorite book: Wing on Fire by Dr A.P.J Kalam
Favorite dish: Anything from his Mom’s kitchen
Favorite game: Cricket,  represented university level matches  as a Bats man

Welcome Prabhu!

Luciana with a statue of Maradona, Argetina's most famous soccer player.

Luciana de Souza is our resident Brazilian.  Born in Salvador, Bahia in northeastern Brazil, she came to Buenos Aires, Argentina two years ago to learn Spanish and do a postgraduate program in Latin American Literature.  After teaching Portuguese for a time, Luciana joined the Educaedu team in March of 2009.

In the office, Luciana is the Content Manager for Brazil and Portugal.  Anything we need to do in Portuguese, Luciana is there to help us out, including lengthy translations and communications with clients and customers.  She also handles our account on Orkut (a Facebook-esque site that is incredibly popular in Brazil).  So if you want to say hi or make a comment, you can visit her by clicking here.

Luciana loves Argentina, but for her, Brazil is the best country in the world and no one can convince her otherwise (believe me, we’ve tried!).  She will eventually return, but for now she will be at Educaedu, cooking, dancing, and laughing with her workmates who try to speak Portuguese with her.

Favorite food: Cozido – A Brazilian stew made with meat and vegetables.

Favorite author: Jorge Amado – a modern Brazilian writer

Best class ever taken: Arabic Dance Workshop – it only lasted 4 hours but she learned a lot about the culture and history behind the practice

Camila Durán joined Educaedu in October 2009. She came to Buenos Aires from her home town Bogota, Colombia to follow her interest in studying and working abroad.   She graduated from Universidad Javeriana in Bogota with a degree in Political Science and is currently studying in Buenos Aires for a Postgraduate Diploma in Political Communications at the Universidad Nacional de Rosario. At the same time she is also the Content Manager for the Colombian Educaedu website. Camila is in charge of the Educaedu Blog in Spanish and she also maintains media relations in Colombia, two areas where she can apply her communication skills. Educaedu Colombia was launched in early 2009, so if you fancy studying in Colombia and want to polish your Spanish, you can choose from 5761 programs online.

Camila is always full of energy and spends her free time playing field hockey and soccer, running in marathons and playing ping-pong too! Her enthusiasm has even extended to getting a female soccer team together and participating in the Educaedu running team.

Favorite movie: Shawshank Redemption

Favorite novel: Perfume by Patrick Suskind

Favorite extra-curricular activity while at university: Soccer. Camila was a member of her University’s Soccer Team.

Diego, Daniel, Pedro, Pablo, Matias, Martin, Gastón, and Federico (Fede, for short).

Some of the responsibilities of the team include; software development, search engine optimization (SEO), database administration (DBA), systems administration, quality assurance and project manager.

The team´s educational background varies from electronic engineering and information engineering to systems analyst and… artistic drawing?

When asked about what the team does outside of work many answered that they like to bike,  read,  play the guitar and SALSA DANCE.  One answered that after work he goes home and continues programming.

You know who you are, shame on you.

I must say though, that the end of the year company dinner gave us a whole new perception of the programming department.  Those guys know how to party.

Pedro’s favorite movie: Aliens

Fede’s favorite TV show: Myth Busters

Matias’ ideal made-up course: A “How To” Telekinesis Course

Daniel’s favorite book: The Count of Monte Cristo

We have translated an email that Jessica recently sent us, describing her experience early last saturday morning:

The earthquake scared us, it surprised us while we were asleep, and it left us in the dark without the means to communicate.  Even though my apartment still stands, the destruction has affected us terribly, but I am thankful to still have my home and my life and that I can tell you about it.

The earthquake was graded as 8.8, the one in Haiti was a 7 so you have an idea how severe it was.  It was followed by another one at level 6.8 that lasted almost the same time and it was this one that caused the most destruction.  In the hour after the tremor, all of the coasts were hit by tsunamis, some that went almost unnoticed, and others that destroyed everything in their path.  The aftershocks still continue, some stronger than others, but they never stop to scare us, they bring with them a silence that makes us hold our breath, as we wonder  if it will become stronger or stop in any moment.

The darkness, the fear, the uncertainty and the lack of leadership made the hours of the night unforgettably difficult.  Groups of looters broke out in the city, and in the towns in the south where the devastation was the worst, the looters caused even more damage.  They stole televisions, washing machines, beds, everything, something that I`ve never seen and that I am ashamed to write about. Recently things have gotten a bit better with the deployment of the army in the streets.

Rescue workers on Sunday, February 28. Photo - CNN - AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Jessica has told us that it is not clear how the earthquake impacted many education centres, but she does know that the University of Concepción lost its entire chemistry laboratory, which was one of the most important in Chile.  Many centres are also opening their doors and forming groups of volunteers to help with the recovery.

We hope that Chile can recover from a terrible event such as this, and that it can reestablish stability.  To all of the universities and educational centres, we hope that they too can recover what they have lost.

Ceylan Özgören was contracted by Educaedu before coming to Buenos Aires through an organization called AIESEC (Association Internationale des Etudiants en Sciences Economiques et Commerciales).  She came here to work, to see what is happening on the other side of the world and, of course, to learn Spanish.  After almost a year, Ceylan can communicate with her co-workers in perfect Spanish and has really adapted to the porteño lifestyle.

Ceylan is the Turkish Content Manager and she is also in charge of our linking project that we have going on right now.  Educaedu Turkey is the newest addition to our education directory.  It officially went online on Thursday, September 24, 2009 with 70 institutions and 1800 programs to choose from.  Wait, you don’t speak fluent Turkish? Don’t worry. Many institutions conduct entire programs in English.  So if you are interested in studying in Turkey, here are a couple of programs conducted in your native tongue that Ceylan recommends:

• Aerospace Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• International Relations

What she misses most is two words – Turkish Coffee! If you have never tried Turkish coffee you do not know the joys of life.  It is thick and sweet and goes perfectly with any cake.  If you are lucky, Ceylan will read you your fortune from your coffee grounds, which is a Turkish tradition.

Favorite movie: Pulp Fiction

Favorite TV show: Nip/Tuck

Best class ever taken: An E-commerce course.  She took it when she was trying to sell dried apricots to the U.S. and everything that she learned in that course was amazing.

Ideal made-up course: A course to understand the meanings of dreams.

Carly Pocock, originally from Adelaide, Australia, graduated from the University of South Australia with a Bachelor of Visual Arts.  While working as a fitness instructor on a cruise ship in Chile and Argentina, she met her Argentinean boyfriend.  It inspired her to come to Buenos Aires to learn Spanish and experience a different culture.  Going on two years now, she has really made a home for herself, living in the neighborhood of Almagro with her boyfriend and two cats, Pochocla and Galletita.  Whether it’s improving her culinary talents or going to yoga and body pump gym classes, Carly is always looking for new things to explore.

At Educaedu since October 2008, Carly works as the Content Manager for Australia and the UK, and helps out with other tasks whenever she can.  Carly has recently become a Twitter expert and has been put in charge of the Educaedu Twitter account.  She keeps everyone up-to-date with what is going on at our office and in the world of eductaion.

Although she misses her family and friends, and especially the incredible beaches (!!!), Carly is currently without plans to move back to Australia.  She will be staying in Buenos Aires with her boyfriend and cats, with an annual holiday back home to catch up with her family.

Favorite movie: Back to the Future

Favorite TV show: Project Runway (the U.S. version)

Best class ever taken: Reading the Screen – a cinema studies course at University of South Australia

Ideal made-up course: Pop Culture with Concentration in Trash Culture

Richard in La Boca, a neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Hi, I´m Richie. I am Brazilian and worked for Educaedu (in the contents department  for the Brazil and Portugal websites) for almost a year.  I started working for Educaedu when they first opened their office in Buenos Aires and it was a great learning experience.  I met a lot of people, most of which were foreigners like myself, and built great relationships.  Being around so many different kinds of people really opened my mind and taught me many things.  Even though I´ve moved on and now have my own web projects, I would say Educaedu was a big part of my education.

I am happy knowing that I helped develop this website into the success that it is today.  I will miss my friends from the contents department:  Andrea (the supportive one), Brenda (the creative mind), Carly (so helpful), Nacho (the responsible one), Keli (so  Argentine, haha), Hila (so sweet) and of course everyone else!

For those that will follow:  Educaedu is a great place to work!!