Portugal is DBB's Happy Place

Last April, we had the opportunity to visit Lisbon, the beautiful capital of Portugal. The reason that took us to Europe was to seek the academic partnerships necessary for the expansion of DBB across the old continent, in order to continue opening spaces and creating new MUN experiences, and the surprise we got exceeded our own expectations. 

Our trip had several destinations, and we must admit that Spain was the country that most attracted our attention due to the ease of the language and the strong ties we have there. However, some as yet unknown reason led us to Portugal to hold a most enjoyable and interesting meeting with our new and dear friend Jorge Humberto Dias, whom we are pleased to welcome as a distinguished member of the DBB Family. We had a very pleasant and productive conversation with him, in which we talked in depth about the importance of happiness as a driver of change in attitudes and results, not only for students but also of people in general.  

Jorge, like us, is a remarkable agent of change who tirelessly shares happiness with students not only in Portugal but also in many other countries around the world. He is an expert and recognized voice for the Happy Schools Program, created in 2014 on the initiative of UNESCO as one of the fundamental pieces of the efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the UN's 2030 Agenda, and especially SDG #4 related to Quality Education. 

Happy Schools is a system and methodology that transforms traditional schools into happy schools where students can study and work in environments with high levels of well-being and in safe social and educational environments free from any type of violence. This program takes into account the well-being of students, teachers, and school offices. Through 22 proposed actions divided into three categories, it promotes and strengthens a new educational model in which a student's academic success comes from high levels of motivation and happiness, rather than the increasingly obsolete traditional educational model rooted in 18th-century Europe, which considers success to be the source of happiness. 

DBB applauds this initiative and is committed to implementing it, with Jorge's guidance, within our academic spaces in both Mexico and the United States. We are ready to organize our first student trip to Lisbon. 

We will have more to share about this soon.

See you soon in Portugal.

Miss Gina, Robert, and the entire DBB team.