UFRN celebrates 67 years with reports that bring back memories of the academic community

Photo: Rierson Marcos
The Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) celebrates 67 years highlighting the memories and life stories that make up its trajectory. Among the testimonies that make up this celebration is that of Professor Emérita Ângela Paiva Cruz, former dean and current special advisor to the rectory.
 
In her report, she states: “For me, it was a distant, almost impossible dream: a woman, daughter of farmers, coming from Martins, a small city in the interior of Rio Grande do Norte, occupying the highest administrative position at the largest university in the state.”
 
The speech is part of the extension project “Portraits of UFRN: 67 years building stories”, an initiative that reinforces the university as a space formed by the people who build it daily — students, teachers, technicians and outsourced workers. The proposal is to record, through portraits and brief reports, how each member of the community relates their personal trajectory to UFRN.
 
Starting today, part of these records begins to be shared in the institutional feed, expanding the reach of the narratives that make up the history of the institution.
 
The project, carried out by CCHLA, Decom and Comunica, has the collaboration of all participants who authorized the use of their images and voices.
 
The photographs are signed by Rierson Marcos, a Social Communication graduate with a degree in Advertising from UFRN.
 
The author of the images reports that the proposal came up during his internship: "The idea for the project came up in a meeting with my boss, Sandra, from my old internship, which was at Comunica da UFRN. And we wanted to make some content for UFRN's social networks, in celebration of the university's 67th anniversary, which is celebrated this year 2025. And so I brought up the idea of ​​us celebrating these 67 years through the stories of the university's members."
 
According to him, the objective is to document experiences that highlight the human diversity of UFRN:
 
“We make portraits of the academic community, teachers, staff, students, and we take short stories from memory”. He states that this is a way for the entire community to recognize themselves in the stories of those people.
 
Rierson highlights the positive reception of the proposal and the relevance of the registration for the institution:
 
"It is very important. When we document these memory stories and these faces, which in some way represent the university, we are immortalizing these moments."
 
For the student, the experience expands the feeling of belonging and reveals the impact of the institution:
 
“UFRN is a great instrument of social, cultural, intellectual and human transformation in people’s lives.”
 
He defines the process as remarkable in its formation:
 
“For me, as a student, as a photographer, as a communicator, as an artist too, it has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life and my time at university.”