“I have many reasons for being proud of my daughters: they are marvelous, polite, charismatic, devoted and focused on their studies. They are also responsible and have reached maturity, because they know what they want and where to go. For them to become the persons they are now, the Growing-Up Right Institute helped us a lot during the girls’ adolescence, an important phase in their development. It was through the Entrepreneurship and Rural Management Program that they got interested in an agricultural career and now they are in the third semester of the Agronomy Course at the University of Santa Cruz do Sul. Furthermore, during their time as young apprentices, Mariana and Juliana stopped being shy girls and got used to communicate with other people. The course of the Institute also collaborated towards acquiring the capacity to manage a rural farm and how to improve it and go in search of novelties for extra income options.

As mother, I always support them in the best manner possible, with an eye on their wellbeing and helping with their choices. I wish the best for them. I wish them success, a brilliant future, taking advantage of the opportunities that emerge and happiness in the jobs they opted for. In my family, we always advise the children to follow the right path, with humility and simplicity, without looking down on anyone, never thinking they are better than others, thus living in harmony with other people. As agronomists, I hope they will be successful and capable of seeking innovations that contribute towards a good performance both in our farm and in the municipality and region. While they are taking the graduation course they are trying to find out with which activity sector they identify themselves for a specialization in a postgraduate course in the future, as agronomy comprises a vast area. On the opposite shift of their classes at the University, they devote time to our farm, always enriching the activities with new knowledge”.

Josimeri Geisibel Priebe Abich, mother of the twins Mariana Márcia Abich and Juliana Julia Abich, who were young apprentices in 2022 at the Rural Professional Learning Program held by the Growing Up Right Institute, in Paraíso do Sul (RS).