Testimonial Isabelle Soares

I am Isabelle Soares, from Brazil. I was born in the North of Brazil, Fortaleza. I did my bachelors at UNIFOR (Fortaleza) at the architecture & urbanism school. My masters were also in architecture & urbanism school, but in the city of São Paulo, University Mackenzie. I finished the Masters in 2015 and I already had the intention of doing a PhD outside Brazil and in an international environment. Due to the economic crisis that Brazil was going through and the lack of possibilities, I did not see that I could grow professionally as much as I am growing here at the faculty of Spatial Sciences.

In 2016, I spent 3 months living in the south of the Netherlands and had the opportunity to visit some institutions in the Randstad. In the meantime I applied for PhD positions in the Netherlands. In December 2016, I applied for a PhD position from the University of Groningen, faculty of Spatial Sciences and was selected.

Immigrating is never easy, even if you come from a country that is closer to the Netherlands than Brazil is. Even knowing this country already, it was challenging to adapt with the life here and the responsibilities that a PhD represents to me. This is something I always wanted, so I take it very seriously and with great enthusiasm. In general, the life in the Netherlands is very peaceful. However, there is nothing peaceful on doing a PhD!

In general, the working days pass by very fast, and I have the feeling time is not enough. I really like what I do and what I am learning day by day. For example, I have the opportunity to have contact with the Virtual Reality (VR) Lab. The VR is one of the parts I like the most, because I can teach and see how enthusiastic people are with this new technology that can help us so much on the process of Urban Planning and Design. In addition, I am also happy with my colleagues. I think everybody here is very much involved in making the faculty and the world a better place.