My mother is a teacher and always said that education was the chance to have a better life.
I always believed this.
I always believed that education had this transformative power.
My name is Carlla.  I am 20 years old.
I am the founder of the Cosmos Project.
I always studied in public schools.
We moved from neighborhood to neighborhood throughout the city
So I changed schools too.
I started to have different experiences in different schools.
Each time I would go to places with greater inequality, it was reflected in the school.
The school would lack resources and have fewer opportunities,
failing to empower that community and their young people.
I saw this vicious cycle of inequality.
So when I left high school, it really hit me.
“I want to do something. I have to do something
and I have to do it now.”
The goal of the Cosmos Project is to fill a gap in the education system:
the lack of astronomy in the schools and the lack of science
being taught in a fun, playful way.
Every year the project preps students for the Brazilian Astronomy and Astronautic Olympics.
Outside of this, we promote scientific learning through talks, workshops,
always talking about science in practical ways
that the kids can touch and feel that are the at the same time interactive, playful and fun.
Not everyone needs to be a scientist but everyone needs to learn science
because science brings important values to people as citizens.
You need to have the ability to question things.
Where did you get his information? This information, is it true?
But how did you prove this?
We’re talking about scientific thinking to create critical thinking.
When we started we were on our own.
We were five teenagers that used our free time to go to schools and give astronomy workshops.
After two years of this, one teacher, Professor Marcelo,
in the Physics department of the Amazonas University,
looked at us, saw that we had potential
and invited us to be part of the university,
to be a project within the Federal Amazonas University.
After we achieved this, we were even more empowered as a group, you know?
So we kept growing.  Every step we took, a little more courageous.
Our work caught more attention and visibility, more people started to hear of us.
So it’s us at the helm of the project; it’s us going into the schools; it’s us finding these opportunities;
it’s us submitting the proposals; it’s us representing the project speaking in front of different audiences.
We were an initiative that came from the community
and ended up taking over the university
and now the project is taking over other spaces too.
Knowing that I could transform something made me feel more and more powerful.
Even though I’m not the president, even though I’m not a politician,
even if I’m not a business leader, I can change something.
I want each and every person to realize this.
I believe in a world were everyone has a changemaker mindset to not think about the problem
but instead think “what can I do with what I have to solve this problem,
it would be a much better world, a better country.”
I don’t think I’m doing charity.
I am doing work that is necessary.
There is a gap, I see it, and I’m doing something for the society that I am a part of.
In a world defined by change, everyone a giver, everyone powerful, everyone a changemaker.
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