On June 12, our cluster honored Bruna Cardoso for winning the State of Michigan’s Au Pair Service Award.  She was presented with a lovely lucite plaque, an award certificate and a gift card.

Bruna entered the 2016 Au Pair in America contest and submitted her essay describing her volunteer work during her year and expressing the great personal satisfaction she derived from helping others.

Bruna volunteered regularly in her childrens school – assisting in reading and math and helping students who needed a little extra personal attention.  She also assisted at a holiday shop event, disability awareness and did a special Chinese presentation with her host mom to teach the kids about Chinese New Year which was very well received by everyone.

Bruna also participated in some other non-profit association volunteer work including helping for a Chinese New Year event at the FCC-MD (Families with Children from China – Metro Detroit)

In Bruna’s own words:   “Helping at these different kinds of volunteer work made me learn a little bit more about the Chinese New Year.   It’s  always great to learn about different cultures because it adds different values for ourselves.   Seeing how each culture has different walks of life teaches me great life lessons appreciating the differences we all have.”

Bruna plans to continue her volunteer efforts in year two as well.   She feels “Volunteer work is great for me, because it makes me feel like I really make a difference in the community. Seeing the smiling faces of people I help is the one of best feelings in the world.”

As a special treat for Bruna, her counselor made 3 kinds of brigideiros, a traditional Brazilian dessert, which everyone enjoyed.