With vast teaching experience, Dr. Thais Carmo takes on the role of coordinator of the undergraduate programs at the institution FAPUGA. She holds a degree in Pharmacy and a Master’s in Education, has a doctorate in Public Health, and has several specializations that enrich her résumé and make her a reference in the field.
In fact, her doctoral thesis “Drug Prescriptions for Pregnant Women: A Pharmacoepidemiological Study” already has 32 citations in scientific articles published in Brazil and in other countries, such as Suriname, Portugal, the USA, Palestine, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and others.
She began her career as a faculty member in 1987, and in those more than 30 years she has taught in the Pharmacy, Biomedicine, and Medicine programs, was a professor at USP and at the Methodist University of Piracicaba, where she stayed for 20 years and was coordinator of the Pharmacy program.
In addition, Dr. Thais Carmo has always balanced her academic career with her work in Public Health, when she was coordinator of the Pharmaceutical Assistance service of Piracicaba and director of the Regional Health Directorate of the Piracicaba Region. She was also elected councilor and director of the Regional Council of Pharmacy (CRF), where she served as a volunteer for eight years.
But getting to teaching and building this extensive background involved a series of factors and purposes, such as wanting to become an agent of change in health and to go beyond standing behind a pharmacy counter.
Purpose, Motivation, and Values
Although she entered the Pharmacy program and her initial goal was to work in a clinical analysis laboratory, during the program Dr. Thais Carmo realized she needed to be closer to the patient.
“I wanted to work as a health professional, intervening directly in people’s health, alongside the patient. And I felt that pharmacy limited me in that,” explains Dr. Thais Carmo.
So she did her first postgraduate program in Public Health and, at that point, decided to redirect her career toward teaching. During this period, she says that more than ever she realized that the health field is not for just anyone: you need vocation and empathy, you need to put yourself in the other person’s place, and you need a commitment to the patient.
“I decided: if I really wanted to make a difference in the health of many people, I should go into academia, where I could train professionals, or contribute to their training, so that they would have that mindset and that more humanistic profile,” she reveals.
To perform better in training these people, she chose to pursue a master’s degree in Education in order to learn to work with teaching and learning methodologies and make this happen.
“Education, for me, is touching people’s hearts. When they are touched, they understand how important knowledge is, curiosity is awakened so that they want to learn more and truly become an agent of social change,” says Dr. Thais Carmo.
Driven by the desire to take an effective part in people’s lives, the current general coordinator has always sought new challenges that motivated her and made a difference in the world. And that is how she came to FAPUGA.
This need to directly affect people’s well-being and quality of life, as an effective agent of social change in order to make the world a better place, made her identify with FAPUGA’s philosophy and apply for the position of coordinator of the institution’s programs.
Dr. Thais Carmo’s Arrival at FAPUGA
Her arrival at the institution brings new winds, goals, and restructuring, such as increasing the number of students, consolidating the programs, and reviewing the curriculum matrices, since they need to be more dynamic and flexible.
“We need to meet the needs of both the student and the job market, as well as educational aspects. To have a matrix that guarantees the necessary technical knowledge, but that is flexible enough to serve students within the area they chose,” she stresses.
In addition, the professor also highlights that they are planning extension projects, a training program for small managers with FAPUGA professors and students, a workshop for young people looking for their first job, lectures, among many other projects.
“The goal is to help FAPUGA grow more and more, for us to add new programs, for it to position itself differently in the educational landscape,” says Dr. Thais Carmo.
Dr. Thais Carmo’s Advice on the Job Market
With vast experience in the job market, Dr. Thais Carmo leaves two important pieces of advice for those who want to stand out in the job market. And more than that, for those who intend to work with purpose and achieve success.
“First of all, I believe we should know our talents; everyone has them, and I call them vocation. We are only happy when we work with what we like. Once we are aware of this, it is necessary to prepare and nurture solid technical and scientific knowledge,” says Dr. Thais Carmo.
“And the second piece of advice is about learning to work in a team and to relate to others, being tolerant of differences, and knowing how to work on our strengths and weaknesses. This is learned from college days, and it is extremely important for the job market,” she states.
And finally, as an extra piece of advice, FAPUGA’s new general coordinator talks about learning to respect your own time. “We can’t be impatient; when things don’t work out, we have to stop and assess what happened, take responsibility for the failure, and try to improve and put ourselves out there again, in short, never give up, go after your goals, and be prepared for it,” she concludes.
