Howdy! My name is Neil Olalde and I am a senior at the University of Pittsburgh studying Business Information Systems and Marketing. I have chosen these two majors as I felt they paired well with one another, as well as with the increasingly diverse fields of Marketing and Business Analytics. My passions in relation to business are thusly in the areas of Marketing Research, Data Analytics, International Business, Systems Analysis, general business consulting and beyond. For a long time, I have had an interest in both studying abroad, and linking my professional career internationally, and with this amazing experience, I am able to accomplish both in an experiential, and engaging way!

I am from a small town about thirty-five minutes south of Pittsburgh called Peters Township, which is just on the edge of Washington county, and as such, right outside of the greater metropolitan area. Eventually, my love for architecture, and my desire to be further from home drove me to choose the University of Cincinnati, and I spent a year and a half with the University. Other than a brief stint in North Carolina, this was the most intimidating and overall unique experience meeting new people I had ever had, and I loved every second of it. The friendships I made I will always remember, and my love for exploring new places only grew greater and greater as a result.

Unfortunately, my interest in architecture did not last as long as my friendships, and within the first month I knew that I was no longer set on following the program any further, so I decided to transfer to the University of Pittsburgh and begin pursuing a degree in business and have loved every second of it. During my first summer at Pitt, in 2018, I interned at a super-car experience company called Xtreme Xperience, where I traveled around the country, and internationally, every single week, meeting new people, and exploring new cities, going as far west as Colorado Springs, Colorado, and as far north as Toronto, Canada. The experience I received was unparalleled, spending multiple days a week on the road and traveling, often to new cities and working with new people was something I knew from that point forward, that I had to do.

At the end of the next school year, in 2019, I interned with a marketing research firm called Management Science Associates, doing anything from data reconstruction in order to tell a story to having actual input in client meetings. Every day I was working on projects from up to five different clients, some international, and the balancing act that came with that experience certainly was something I loved, and that aspect of consulting was another reason that I was drawn to this program. I hope, as a result of this opportunity, to further hone my skills as a consultant, and as a marketing businessperson, and I want to connect this with my love for thinking globally!