Name: Guilherme Afarelli Venaglia
Age 22 years old
Hometown: São Paulo (SP)
Course: Journalism
Year of graduation: 2017
Favorite movie: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Favorite series: House of Cards
1984 – George Orwell
One flaw: Lazy
One quality: Tenacious
Why did you choose journalism? Did you Always wanted to take this course?
I chose because I liked the classic humanities: history, geography, these things that we like. But I thought it was a bit boring, kind of paused in time. I had no interest in teaching and thought I did not like the practical activity of these areas. I thought that journalism was a cooler job. I studied this a lot, but I had a nice job. It had a practical activity that seemed to fit me.
And why did you choose Casper?
In fact, I only considered three colleges: Cásper, ECA (USP) and PUC. I thought that to study journalism it had to be in one of these three because the market was already difficult so had to do in one which was well-known. I already preferred Casper because out of three it was the closest to my house and I knew it was good. but I was focused on goign to USP because I would rather not pay to study. I wanted more from Casper, but I’d rather not pay. I did not pass at USP, but I was accepted in Casper and for me it was good.
You have practically a career within this building! When you were approved, did it already plan to be so present in college activities?
More or less. I wanted to participate more in things than I did then. In High School I did not throw myself at things, but I wanted to. I felt even a bit of security and wanted to put my face in the sun more. And in college I went with everything. I came very willingly and soon opportunities appeared, appeared positions that interested me and I got involved.
Let’s go, in order, what were your positions here in college?
Between the beginning of 2014 and the end of 2015, I was from the LGBT Club. From June 2014 until June 2017, I was a student representative. And there I was for three different representations: representative of the coordination, of the congregation and of the CTA (Administrative Technical Council). I left the LGBT Club in 2015 to go to the Academic Center. I did not want to do both at the same time. Then I spent 2016 in CA. I finished the year 2016 and I was alone with the last 6 months of CTA.
Other than that, I worked in college myself. I was a coordinator of journalism for 1 year and 4 months, I was a Monitor at Núcleo Editorial, where I was editor of Revista Cásper and Edição Extra.
You were also part of the CAVH + Vozes (2016) management, how was the experience?
It was very good, very troublesome, but very good. Because since I entered the Casper I had a vision of what I thought the CAVH should be and what I thought it was not. I always thought that the CAVH should be an institution that embraced the others, from the clubs, to the athletic, coletivos, etc. I thought that the CAVH should be the defense of the student body in a broader way. And I thought it was not, I thought the CAVH was greatly reduced in one installment. This was not a bad thing, because it hit the people who needed it most, but on the other hand, by concentrating on the fronts of struggle that it most clearly needed, it ended up having no influence on the student body as a whole. I thought it had no college penetration as a whole. It was with that tone that we gathered and decided to run in the elections. Of course the practice was more difficult than theory. I still think that the CAVH should be this and I think that we have advanced in some points in this aspect, I think it was a step, but the practice was much more difficult than the theory. I did not expect such a strong institutional resistance from the faculty, and I did not expect some groups to begrudge management as well. I think those two things got in the way.
Which one did you like best?
From these positions that we talked about, I think what I was most happy about were the political positions, I found that being a student representative of the journalism coordination was the best thing. The group of students I needed to care for was smaller and because I have an interest in the issues surrounding the future of journalism. as a representative I had a lot of space, I had a chance to meet many people, chance to promote a Journalism Week and do a lot. I think that was the one that I had the highest result, that I look and see that my legacy was greater.
And of the professional positions, the activity that I liked the most was to edit the Revista Cásper. It’s a wonderful editorial product, it’s beautiful. I think there is a lot of potential to be tapped yet, even though I think she could turn more to communication. I liked the work of Cásper magazine more, but I liked my routine more when I was a coordinator.
What are you most proud to have done here?
The Journalism Week of 2014 was surreal because it was a bomb that fell on my lap in August. The Journalism Week was in October and in August we had absolutely nothing. And in October we did a Journalism Week, counting with the support of Carlos Costa who was the coordinator, with 18 panels in 5 days. In two months, producing such panels and leading a process this size at age 19 was crazy. It was the most concrete result, I did a lot, but this was the most daring project.
You currently intern at Veja magazine. How is the day to day in the writing of this magazine?
Inside the magazine Veja my main job is the website. We start the day by picking up the things that we think we still need to write on, that we might be a little behind or things we need to get back in comparison to the competition. Then we go after trying to shoot the big points. In that time that I am there, we have been more in politics because the political news is very busy and it is asking a lot that it is so. Anyway, basically after we take what was missing, we start thinking about guidelines that cover these themes: or everyday of big cities or national politics.
What is the best experience you have had working at Veja?
At Veja I participated in the coverage of several major moments, such as the death of Teori Zavascki, the Odebrecht Leniency Agreement, the Fachin list, Lula’s testimony, Lula’s most recent sentence, the accusation against Temer, the JBS , it was a lot. But the day I got more accomplished might have been the day I interviewed Soninha Francine. She had been fired by João Dória (São Paulo’s mayor) the day before and no one had spoken to her. Doria made a video on Facebook in which he said that Soninha was going to leave the post and she appeared not to be happy to be leaving the post. The next day she had not spoken to anyone yet and I insisted very much with her press officer in every way and we ended up getting an interview, which she only gave to Veja. I did the interview and I think maybe it was the work I did to see what else it did, because as the interview was exclusive, several sites syndicated the piece.
You graduate this year. How do you expect college to end?
Journalism is a difficult profession, that’s a fact. If you do not like what you do, you can’t continue it. Recently I saw a video from a New Yorker editor where he gives advice to young journalists and his main advice is about you being obsessed, you have to have the agenda you’re doing as something almost tattooed on the forehead. So my expectation for the end of college is to understand that writing journalism is really only for those who enjoy it. It is for the one who love, if you do not like what you are doing very much, you do not stop because it is a life that asks you a lot, that demands a lot. My expectation is to train myself, to continue working and to hope that I can always continue to enjoy so much of what I do, because otherwise I will not be able to continue doing it.
What are your plans for next year?
For the next year my plan is to work on writing about national politics, whether in São Paulo or abroad. Preferably involved with the 2018 elections, I would like to cover the elections very closely. Maybe start a second college because I think I need to. Journalism is very much on the surface of everything and I would like to delve deeper into some issues, especially economics and politics.
You are very fond of politics. Do you want to enter this world someday?
I think that everyone who covers politics has already thought about what I would do if I were in that person’s place if I had a certain vote on what I would do. But at the same time, covering politics, you lose a little bit of charm over the system. You see that things are more complicated than you would like to do. Anyway, I think every citizen who is interested in politics should have that possibility. I think we have to naturalize that path. In short, I do not rule out, but it’s not something I see in the short term.