Teresa Navarro is a journalist for Estado de S. Paulo, one of the largest newspapers in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She has been in the field of journalism for over 30 years and specializes in economics. She also is married and has two adult children, who are both studying in University.
Being a journalist is an incredibly important profession, especially in Brazil. Teresa sees her work as a journalist as crucial to improving the nation. Her hope is that the country will have less economic inequality and less government and corporation corruption. Journalists are able to bring change through informing the public of issues. Without this means of communication, many people would remain uninformed and people in institutions and government would lack accountability.
Teresa explains that in order to be a successful journalist, you cannot just be a good writer. You must be critical and know what questions to ask in an interview. Journalism is as much about communicating important information as it is about writing. She has used critical communicating in many interviews in order to uncover facts and information for her pieces.
The most interesting period for the Brazilian economy for Teresa was in 1999 during the Brazilian economic crisis. During this time the inflation was unmanageable and the government was unable to control it. Eventually the country was able to pull out of the crisis by stabilizing inflation, offering aid to lower income families, and subsidizing agriculture. Since then the economy has improved and become much more prosperous.
Learning English has been an important part of Teresa’s work as a journalist. The profession has changed considerably and now more and more journalists are learning English in order to be able to work internationally. Many Brazilians from younger generations are fluent in English. The industry is also changing because of globalization and a larger demand for international news, causing more journalists to learn English.
Teresa studied at ELC Santa Barbara for four weeks in the Intensive English Program. She explained that the experience was positive, allowing her to increase her English vocabulary. She enjoyed coming to school and being in a small city like Santa Barbara. 
