U of T undergrads off to Brazil to research poverty

It’s not unusual for University of Toronto professors to travel abroad to do field research. It’s not even out of the ordinary for graduate students to do so.

But for undergraduate students, the chance to fly to another country to do original research is an opportunity not to be missed.

Alexa Waud and two other undergraduate students will be travelling to Brazil in December to investigate that country’s approach to alleviating poverty. For Waud, the chance to help design a research project from the ground up is irresistible.

“I haven’t had that chance before. As an undergraduate student, it’s invaluable to understand how that process works – starting with a literature review, then an annotated bibliography, determining the questions, getting ethics approval and the rest of it.”

Waud is in her third year at U of T, doing a double major in peace, conflict and justice studies and environment and health. She and the other students, including two students in the masters of global affairs program, will be travelling with Professor Joseph Wong of political science to find out why Brazil’s Bolsa Familia program is so effective at getting funds directly to the poor.

Bolsa Familia – the largest conditional cash transfer program in the world – provides a direct cash transfer to 14 million poor families and has a 75 percent success rate in getting the funds into the hands of those who need them, Wong says.

“These conditional cash transfers have had a positive effect on child health, including a significant decrease in under-5 mortality rates,” he says. “It’s a remarkable record, but I don’t have time to do all the research myself, so I recruited these phenomenal undergraduate students to help me out.”

Wong recruited the undergraduate students from former participants in the Munk School of Global Affairs Munk One program, where he teaches a first-year course in global innovations. (Learn more about Munk One.)

Wong and his students will be meeting with government officials, health care workers and program recipients. Divided into two teams, they’ll travel to the capital city Brasilia, to Salvador in the northeast part of the country, to São Paulo and to Belo Horizonte.

Wong says he’s not surprised by the students’ enthusiasm to participate. “For them this is just a fantastic research experience. All of them are motivated by issues of poverty reduction, they’re motivated by issues of development, and here’s an opportunity for them to get into a particular initiative or project, to get into it very deeply.”

In a discussion paper on U of T's three priorities released last week, President Meric Gertler talked about the importance of re-imagining undergraduate education and emphasizing research-based, experience-based and international learning.

“Over the past 10 plus years we have dramatically scaled up the number of research opportunities for undergraduates,” Gertler said, “championed experiential and service learning and expanded the range and variety of international experiences available to our students. We need to build on these successes and maintain this momentum.

“Participating in research provides a valuable opportunity for students to develop key skills – to enhance their problem-solving ability and creativity, to foster their capacity for team work and to sharpen their communication skills (both written and oral).”

Three Priorities

U of T undergrads off to Brazil to research poverty

Read more about the three priorities