Hallo everyone! My name is Anoohitha Vaddi, but everyone calls me by Anoo. I am currently a junior from the University of Pittsburgh majoring in Marketing and Supply Chain Management. From the suburbs of Philadelphia, I am from about five hours away from Pitt in a small town called Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. I come from a bilingual family where we speak Telugu, an Indian language, and English. My family consists of my parents, who immigrated with me to the United States when I was around a year old, and my younger brother. I was born in 1998 in Nellore, India, and within the past 21 years of my life, I lived in many different places: New Jersey, Florida, and currently, Pennsylvania.
From a small town to a city environment, I was excited to come to Pitt and have a change of pace of things. I initially came to Pitt as my intended major as Finance. After joining a professional business fraternity, Alpha Kappa Psi, I spoke to a couple of juniors and seniors about the majors that Pitt Business offered here. These conversations made me realize that Finance was not right for me. I wanted to do something creative and analytical in the future, and I learned that Marketing and Supply Chain Management were the two perfect majors for my career path.
Pitt has given me so many opportunities for growth and to push me to work harder. Here at Pitt, I am involved in Alpha Kappa Psi, Pitt Tonight, and Strong Women Strong Girls. I currently hold the Co-Marketing Executive position in Pitt Tonight, and I am a mentor for Strong Women Strong Girls. Previously, I also held positions in Alpha Kappa Psi as Director of Information Technology. While participating in all of these organizations, I am so thankful to have met with many wonderful people and earned many incredible academic and professional opportunities in each organization.
Due to all the professional skills I learned from Alpha Kappa Psi, I earned an internship the summer after my sophomore year with a marketing agency from my hometown called Elysium Marketing Group, LLC. There, I worked on and researched about email marketing, social media, and SEO strategies. It was an all-female marketing agency, which was a very empowering work environment for me. Then, in the fall of 2019, I participated in an advertising competition called The Pitch, which was held by the American Advertising Federation Pittsburgh. This competition assigned me a marketing agency (Gatesman) with several other students to solve a marketing problem given by a client. We had to solve this problem within about 8 hours, a regular work day. Eventually after graduating college, I hope to become a digital marketer who works on social media management, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), data analytics, or influencer marketing.
Before applying for the Global Capstone Consulting: Germany study abroad program, I was excited to see that the Projects in Marketing class was consulting in Germany. Back in middle school and high school, I took German. Now, I am thrilled to see how well I remember and apply my German speaking skills when we travel over there during spring break. I took this class not only because of its study abroad opportunity but also the consulting experience that you get out of the entire class.
Throughout this study abroad program, I hope to develop myself personally, academically and professionally. To start off, personally I hope to expand my curiosity of the world and to be more adaptable and courageous in new environments. I would like to think of myself as an introverted extrovert meaning that once I feel comfortable with someone, I will be more extroverted around them. By participating in this global consulting study abroad program, it will help me ease to new people I meet in professional and casual settings since I am not one to first start up a conversation. Furthermore, I hope to discover and learn more about Germany, but also more about the world in general. Not only do I hope to gain these skills, but also soft skills such as communication and prioritization. These skills are applicable in every situation, especially if I would like to successful in the business and marketing world.
Academically, the Global Capstone Consulting: Germany program will expose me to various marketing and consulting strategies through experimental learning that I can apply to my current and future classes. Within these past few weeks, I learned a lot already, especially about the core parts of consulting and interacting with a client. I am curious to learn more as the semester goes on. For example, some of the social media strategies that we are talking about during our sessions, I am learning additional information about these strategies in my digital and social media marketing class.
Not only will I be able to get out personal skills but also, I believe it will help me gain various professional skills that I will use in my future career. My career goal is to end up working for either a marketing/advertising agency or an innovative and creative company. The Global Consulting Capstone: Germany programs gives me the opportunity to work in an environment full of motivated and creative people. Furthermore, the program allows me to gain international experience working with a client that is abroad. I hope to increase my knowledge of consulting and social media marketing strategies out of this program so I can apply these skills to my future marketing job.
The Global Capstone Consulting: Germany study abroad program is the perfect experience that I have been waiting for to participate in at Pitt. It combines consulting and digital marketing skills for students like me to gain experience to use this knowledge for future classes and job opportunities. I am excited to see what the Global Capstone Consulting: Germany programs holds for me to experience!