Spring 11 MASTER.indd - Thunderbird Magazine

WINTERIM
wonderlands
Students explore
innovation from
Brazil to South Africa
By Daryl James
Thunderbird student Brian
Brock ’11, left, chats with
Bate-Lata performers
Jan. 13, 2011, at the
Fibria community center in
Santa Branca during the
Brazil Winterim.
(Photo by
Marcela Cubas ’11)
Children chatter with excitement as a chartered bus full of foreigners
arrives Jan. 13, 2011, at the rural community center
in Santa Branca, Brazil, where families of local forestry workers
play soccer, attend after-school classes and practice their
drums.
Upside-down cans and buckets painted bright colors serve as percussion
instruments for the children, who wear matching green and purple shirts
emblazoned with the name of their group, Bate-Lata. The young musicians
take their places for a concert in the open-air pavilion while their
guests from Thunderbird School of Global Management gather to listen.
The 18 graduate students from India, Japan, Peru, South Korea, Thailand
and the United States have come to Brazil for a three-week course on
sustainable business in the emerging market. They are led by Thunderbird
Professor John Zerio, Ph.D., a Brazilian native from São Paulo who has
arranged a full day of activities with pulp and paper manufacturer Fibria.
After site visits to nearby plantations, nurseries, factories and laboratories,
Zerio’s class makes one final stop at the Fibria community center to
see the softer side of forestry. Fibria provides the classrooms, playground
and other facilities at the center as part of its corporate social responsibility
strategy.
Managers from the company have planned an evening barbecue for the
Thunderbird students. But the Bate-Lata concert is a surprise organized by
the drummers and their adult leader, who calls the young musicians his
children.
Steady summer rain falls on an adjacent soccer field, and the aroma of
roasting meat wafts through the damp air. Despite the distractions, the two
dozen children stand at attention and wait for a signal from their leader.
He taps his drum with one hand raised, and the children answer with
an eruption of rhythm that reverberates through the pavilion. After the
concert ends, the performers crowd around their Thunderbird guests
— climbing onto laps, posing for photographs and exchanging contact
information.
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