Interview with Cauã Rodrigues
Cauã Rodrigues, 17 years old, lives in Cabo Frio-RJ nowadays but has already lived in many places throughout Rio de Janeiro. All this moving around made him develop more autonomy and resilience and, mainly, made him find himself. He is passionate about writing and sees this activity as a tool for social impact. Furthermore, he defends causes such as the black movement, LGBTQIA+ rights, and education.
It does not matter which path each person chooses to walk. Education has major importance to everyone’s trajectory. It was not different for Cauã, who worked hard for good schooling, got it in IFRJ, and in the process, met people of all types that were comfortable with being themselves. And it was in this diversity that his consciousness awakened for the self-knowledge journey. Since then, he has been part of projects that stand for diversity, emotional care, and democratization of access to opportunities, impacting people through his writing and allowing him to change the world bit by bit.
He was encouraged to apply to LALA by ex-students, and he was a mentee in the Prep Change project (@prepchange). That was when he applied, got in, and participated in VLB5. For him, LALA was a second rebirth that allowed him to deal with some emotional issues and work in self-care. One of the biggest things he learned in his V-Camp was that “before changing the world, you need to change yourself.” Here, he found a community full of people that want to connect and learn his stories.
His history with writing began as a child, during alphabetization when he was encouraged by his mom to read. However, he realized that just reading was not enough and wanted to write his own stories, and that is what he did. Today, he works as a writer in the project CoEduca (@coeducabrasil) and in LALA’s Storytelling team, where he is extremely excited to give back, listen to new stories, and spread LALA’s message beyond the community.
Cauã Rodrigues is one of the incredible ex-students from LALA, finding himself, growing and making connections, and contributing to this organization’s big ecosystem. He leaves us with the message that “each person is unique in different ways.” Thank you for sharing your beautiful story with us!
These stories are written and edited by the Storytelling Team, an alumni-lead team that collects stories with the objective of recognizing and celebrating the wonderful work that volunteers, staff, and alumni do for LALA and also to show how the organization has impacted their life.
