João Pedro Souto

As you can see up here, my name is João Pedro Souto, I'm 19, and I'm studying Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Oporto at the 2nd grade. I like very much of the course, it's everything like I mostly always wanted. It's pretty interesting and enthusiastic in many ways, with many different subjects you can choose to learn. Oporto, by itself, is a city that you shouldn't die without visiting. As for its beautiful tradition and the monuments, as for the people, which are very nice and make you feel good in there. Another thing is the academic tradition we have in here. Students take an enormous effort to receive each other in a special way and unite with each other. But, actually, I've not always lived in this city.

I was born in a small village, Armamar, where I grew up. Studied there till 9th grade, but then it was time to change and I went to Lamego, to high school. Then I worked for three months in Teixeira Duarte S.A. in Vila Nova de Gaia. I think it's great to live in a region like mine. Great wine, great landscape, all good.

I've made a lot of friends in Oporto, after my job in Teixeira Duarte, and during the course. Friends who support me like family. It was also in college that I learned (although i'm in the 2nd year) to improve working capacity, developed some skills like lab work, presentation speeches and interpersonal communication. My main goals are finding a job, where I can work, for real, in my own area (Health). Industry would be my preference, but other chances in my career wouldn't be bad and surely wouldn't be unacceptable. What I want is to work in what I've studied for these 5 years. Then, I will think about a career. In that case, I think we can't be selective in situations like this, that we live in my country. The number of opportunities right now is very low for the number of people that do what I do, so I've got to get some way to differentiate from them, have something that can make be like a very positive outlier.