As a graduate of the MBA program at the BYU Marriott School of Business, Christian Da Silva knows that education opens the door of opportunity. With the help of loving friends and family and a Cardon International Sponsorship from the Whitmore Global Business Center, Da Silva discovered ways to continue his education and shape a better future.
Born and raised in Paraguay, Da Silva grew up surrounded by supportive mentors who taught him the importance of earning a good education. He studied hard and made academics a priority. He dreamed of attending college in the US, but it always felt just out of reach. “Earning a degree was a necessity for me, but studying in the US wasn’t always on the table,” he says.
Da Silva didn’t know if he spoke English well enough to thrive in an English-speaking environment. “I learned some English growing up, but I wasn’t sure where my skills needed to be at,” he says.
After high school, Da Silva served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the California San Bernardino Mission—speaking English. He looked forward to refining his English-language fluency while teaching the gospel in California.
“I could have gotten away with just speaking Spanish on my mission, but I worked hard to learn English and to sound like the best English-speaker I could,” Da Silva says. The discipline and payoff of learning English grew Da Silva’s confidence, and he began to reconsider his dream of pursuing a college education in the US. “My mission helped a lot. It boosted my English skills and gave me the confidence I needed to tackle language barries.” It was also on his mission where he became interested in studying at Brigham Young University.
Despite concerns about spending more time away from his family in Paraguay to pursue college in the US, Da Silva applied to BYU, trusting in the positive impact of earning a degree from BYU.
Once at BYU, Da Silva studied manufacturing engineering and met his wife, Gabriela, who is from São Paulo, Brazil. Communicating with his wife motivated him to improve his Portuguese, making it his third fluent-speaking language. They had their first child before Da Silva graduated. To alleviate the growing expenses, Da Silva worked part time while taking classes and during the summer semesters.
After graduating in 2013, Da Silva and his family moved home to Paraguay where he worked at a concrete mixing company as the general manager. Though his job taught him valuable skills, he wanted more. “I wanted to be more than a guy working in a production line,” he says. Da Silva set a goal to gain more education in business to help him grow. “My main objective was to deepen my understanding of the administrative facets of business,” he says.
He felt concerned about his ability to pay for graduate education in the US, especially while supporting a growing family. “Living in South America and paying for a US education is tough,” Da Silva explains.
Around this time, Da Silva learned about a sponsorship for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who live outside the United States or Canada and are interested in obtaining a graduate degree from the BYU Marriott School of Business. The Cardon International Sponsorship supports students who plan to return to their home country upon graduation to be leaders in their professions and communities. “One of the biggest reasons I needed the sponsorship was so that I could support my wife and my kids for two years,” Da Silva says. He applied, was accepted, and received the sponsorship.
Da Silva brought his wife and children to Utah, and he was soon immersed in the MBA program. The program not only introduced Da Silva to theories in finance, marketing, strategy, and other business areas but also gave him practice applying those theories. “Each class emphasized applying our knowledge to the real world,” Da Silva explains. “In the process of learning business theories, I gained a holistic perspective of the impact of theory.”
Da Silva focused his studies on global supply chain and operations, which helped him apply his manufacturing engineering experience to business. “The MBA program provided me with tools to bridge the gap between my work experience and decision-making skills,” he says.
For Da Silva, the relationships he built during the program impacted him as much as the coursework. “I love the people in the program. It’s something that you can only understand through experiencing it,” he says. “Professors are experts in their fields and approachable mentors who paused their commitments to help me with whatever I needed. I have never experienced a similar collaborative environment as that one before.”
Near the end of his first year in the MBA program, Da Silva applied for internships at several companies, and many opportunities fell through. Eventually he received an offer from doTERRA Brazil to work as an operations intern. This internship led to a full-time job offer as the doTERRA Brazil operations manager after Da Silva finished his MBA in 2023.
Now in Brazil with his family, Da Silva leans on his education to impact his community. He says, “I hope to help shape a better future for everyone I interact with.”
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Written by Jake Holt
