I worked a full-time internship in the supply chain department of a hospital, I traveled to four different countries, I discovered new cultures, I lived with a host family, I made new friendships, and I forced myself out of my comfort zone on a daily basis. It is difficult to sum up possibly the most important two months of my life within one simple blog post. I have had more opportunities for learning and growth in the past eight weeks than I have ever before. Every day was a new challenge and new opportunity.

Something that I love about Pitt Business is that its uncommon to find someone who doesn’t study abroad at some point in their college career. All of my friends told me how much I would grow, and how much I would learn while abroad. I imagined I would see growth within myself, but not nearly to the extent that I have. It is incredible how much two months can change a person in both a professional and personal sense.

I came into this program with the personal goal of becoming comfortable with ambiguity and uncomfortable situations. I like to plan every aspect of my life as much as I can, and I like to know what my days will be spent doing. However, this is unrealistic as plans are consistently changing. I also tend to fall into a comfortable routine that I dislike diverging from, but in the world of business it is important to be adaptable and comfortable with change. I decided the best way for me to become more comfortable in situations that are uncomfortable or ambiguous was to put myself into them even if I was slightly terrified to do so. It was very intimidating to be thrown into a new company, family, and culture without having much information prior to arrival in the new country. I had only ever left the United States twice before this experience and it was for no more than two weeks both times. Throughout my time in Spain, I was forced to assimilate to my surroundings, ask questions, and gain an understanding of how another culture conducts business. After reflecting on my time here, I have come to realize how comfortable I have become with the city, my family, my job, and being around only Spanish speaking individuals all the time. It is a weird feeling to feel at home in another part of the world. Madrid has helped be become comfortable with uncomfortable situations and turn ambiguity into a challenge that I can work to overcome.

I have seen incredible growth in my ability to interpret and respond to the Spanish Language. Prior to this international internship, I had no confidence to speak Spanish and I often had to think about how to conjugate verbs before speaking. Academically, I have grown by improving my speaking abilities and my confidence to respond without having to think about exactly what words to use. I look forward to my Spanish class this upcoming fall semester because I believe my experience this summer will make understanding my professors and the readings a lot easier. I also learned a lot about supply chain management and excel. I was able to explore different functions of excel that I can bring back to Pitt when I am a teaching assistant for quantitative methods. I am very comfortable now with its functions, and therefore believe I will be able to teach others more effectively. I was able to apply a lot of things I learned in my classes to further my academic experience outside of the classroom. This internship was an extension of my operations management and managerial accounting classes. I was able to see the things I learned in action and apply my knowledge to the jobs at hand.

A professional goal of mine when I applied for this program was to gain professional working experience in the field of supply chain management. I have accomplished this goal by working in excel to interpret data in order to forecast future demand and schedule purchases from suppliers. I also facilitated the inspection of incoming stock and distribution of materials based on requisitions from departments in the hospital. I also learned a lot about quality control and standards as well as cyclical counting and inspection of materials. Overall, this internship taught me a lot about inventory planning, operations, and logistics of supplies. Increasing my ability to interpret and respond to the Spanish language also helped me professionally. Having worked in a fully Spanish speaking environment gives me the opportunity to work internationally or for a company that has international relations with Spanish speaking countries. This experience opens up a myriad of options for post-graduation jobs and helped me discover that these are viable options for me. I didn’t truly consider these options until having worked internationally through this program.

Learning to problem solve in stressful situations helped me grow personally, academically, and professionally. This is a skill that will be useful in all aspects of life. In my internship, I experienced situations such as using excel in a different language where I had to problem solve in order to complete my task. From this I learned the different functions of excel on a Spanish computer. I also experienced situations in the office where the language barrier kept me from fully understanding instructions from my supervisor. I had to find problem solve in order to complete the tasks expected of me. I also improved my problem-solving skills in a personal sense. Many of my personal problem-solving experiences came along with the public transportation system and a dead phone. Occasionally, my cell phone would die, and I wouldn’t have maps to help me out with reaching my destinations. Therefore, I had to figure out on my own connections between metros and busses in order to get where I needed to go. Without any help from the internet or a friend, these were situations in which I had to stay calm and figure out what to do.

I have learned a lot throughout the duration of this program. However, my biggest takeaways include learning that flexibility is crucial, the importance of independence, and that the world is a whole lot bigger than you may think. Plans and situations change all the time. It is important to learn how to “go with the flow” and adapt to changing circumstances. When I return to Pitt in the fall, I will use what I learned about adaptability to find new opportunities and challenges when plans don’t go exactly as expected. Independence is important and doing things on my own helped me learn about my own interests and thoughts instead of always following a crowd. At home I am always surrounded by people be it my family, my roommates, or my friends. However, in Madrid most of my days are spent alone. This allowed for me to grow as an individual instead of with a group of people. I discovered how interested I really am in art by going to a museum alone. Instead of feeling obligated to keep up with a group of people, I had time to wander and read at my own pace. Upon my return to Pitt, I plan to continue to discover my personal interests and explore by taking more time to do things on my own. After studying abroad, I have come to realize that there are so many different cultures, people, and places. It is important to keep an open mind when traveling to really gain cultural awareness. At first, I was always questioning why the Spanish culture does things so differently than what I am used to. After a while, I realized that neither culture is necessarily wrong in the way they conduct their lives. It is simply just different. This is an important thing to understand especially since in the business world we interact globally. Breaking out of your bubble of comfort and looking past what you have always known, allows for understanding of another culture and helps to better understand people. This in turn allows for stronger business relationships to form. I have gained a lot of respect for the international students at Pitt. I better understand what they go through on a daily basis being in a new culture different from what they have always known and been comfortable with.