{"id":4336,"date":"2021-07-05T07:29:16","date_gmt":"2021-07-05T11:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/?p=4336"},"modified":"2025-10-02T10:36:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T14:36:54","slug":"congratulations-david-matta-jerias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/2021\/congratulations-david-matta-jerias\/","title":{"rendered":"Congratulations! David Matta Jerias"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Congratulations! David Matta Jerias\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

As one of the few international students in MDS\u2019 first cohort and one of its first graduates, David Matta Jerias celebrates his completion of the GDip program<\/a> this June. He described his one-year MDS journey as \u201camazing\u201d and \u201cthe best choice\u201d he had ever made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Chilian diaspora in Brazil, the exploration of migration and diaspora issues has always been in Jerias\u2019 life. With an academic background in International Relations, he devoted the last 8 years working for the immigration department at the Canadian Consulate in S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil. Upon moving to Canada for further studies, he decided to further expand his existing understanding of migration through the MDS GDip program at Carleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was able to focus on everything that matters to my life. Because I studied a lot about diasporic memory and one of the case studies focusing on Chilian diaspora was a very personal experience to me. It touched me a lot.\u201d Jerias also points out that many subjects, such as constructing the Canadian identity, provided him with new perspectives about Canada and his career in the migration field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the best features of the program is the people<\/a>,\u201d Jerias says, \u201cbecause you see so many interesting backgrounds and migrant stories, the human side of migration studies.\u201d When mentioning his first experience in a break-out group discussion, Jerias says, \u201cwe were sharing each other\u2019s fears regarding their studies and exchanging life experiences and research strategies. It feels like we are complementing each other.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe MDS Graduate Diploma program is a very great option for people who don\u2019t have two years to dedicate to their studies but can gain some deep knowledge in the field of migration studies with only one year. This is the best feature of the GDip program giving more people access to the studies.\u201d Although not in the following academic year, Jerias plans to eventually take the \u201claddering\u201d option to further pursue the M.A. degree of MDS with his GDip credits fully approved and transferred in the next several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout his studies in MDS, Jerias tried to focus both on the Canadian and Latin-American perspectives. \u201cIn the course about forced migration, I focused on the Venezuelans in Brazil and Colombia because many Latino cases and experiences are not well researched by scholars. So, I always try to contribute the Latin-American perspectives and cases in class discussions.\u201d Sharing a similar motivation, MDS students each contribute their own part to the often fascinating conversation in class given their distinct cultural backgrounds and professions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently working at a consulting company in Ottawa, Jerias believes that his studies at MDS helped him better understand the impact of his work on people seeking change in their lives, encouraging him to strive even harder in his work. \u201cThis is something beautiful\u201d, says Jerias.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked to share a message to prospective MDS<\/a> students, Jerias simply says, \u201cJust come. The knowledge you will gain here at MDS is the knowledge for life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As one of the few international students in MDS\u2019 first cohort and one of its first graduates, David Matta Jerias celebrates his completion of the GDip program this June. He described his one-year MDS journey as \u201camazing\u201d and \u201cthe best choice\u201d he had ever made. As a Chilian diaspora in Brazil, the exploration of migration […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4336"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4339,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4336\/revisions\/4339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}