Hello! My name is Olivia Drohan and I am so excited to spend next semester in Florence, Italy. To tell you a bit about myself, I am a junior at the University of Pittsburgh studying Human Resources in the College of Business Administration and pursuing a Certificate in Leadership and Ethics. I recently finished my term as VP of Marketing and Member Relations for Women in Business. I love to plan events and JuJu Smith-Schuster even showed up at WiB’s Date Party that I organized this past semester. I spent this past fall interning at UPMC with their Campus Program’s Recruitment Team. I spent a lot of time attending college recruitment events, watching and evaluating video interviews, and becoming friends with my great team! It made me very interested in becoming a recruiter someday. This coming summer I will be interning at Bank of New York Mellon as a Human Resources Summer Analyst, and I’m excited to continue gaining experience in the HR field.

In my free time, I love to stay active. Running is one of my favorite pastimes, and I ran the Columbus Marathon in October of 2017 as well as several half marathons. I became involved in Crossfit my senior year of high school and have continued to do workouts throughout my college career (two of my roommates are coaches of the Panther Crossfit Club and they keep me in check!) Recently I have been loving going to hot yoga classes in Shadyside with my friends, followed by a cup of coffee and a smoothie bowl from Salud. When I am not working out, I love to hang out with my friends and our cat, Daryl. We like to watch scary movies and tv shows, and just finished watching The Haunting of Hill House. I also enjoying spending time with my family. I come from Butler, Pennsylvania (about an hour north of Pittsburgh) and go home every so often to visit my parents, two younger sisters, and two dogs.

I am so excited to be a part of the Global Business Institute Program in Florence. I picked this location because I went to Florence after my freshman year as a part of Pitt Plus 3 and absolutely loved it. I am looking forward to integrating myself into the culture and becoming more than just a tourist. A personal goal that I have set for myself is becoming “comfortable with the uncomfortable.” On this program, I think that it will give me a plethora of opportunities to be in unfamiliar situations that will help with my growth and development. For example, I have always been nervous traveling on my own, and want to become more comfortable and experienced with doing so. Academically, I am excited to take my electives for my human resources major and learn some Italian. I will also be taking an art class, and what better place to study art than in Italy? Last, I know that this study abroad experience will help with my professional development. Since I hope to go into recruiting, two essential skills I will need are communication and adaptability. I will have to quickly learn how to communicate in areas and with people I may not be comfortable with while abroad. Additionally, adaptability is a skill I will have to utilize while abroad. I will have to adapt to a new living situation, learning situation, and the overall environment around me. I can’t wait to see what this semester will hold!