Greetings from London! My name is Michael Holt and I am a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in finance and minoring in economics. I chose the University of Pittsburgh because of its combination of offering the opportunity to live in a city along with the intimate feeling of attending a school with a close-knit college campus. So far, the hustling and bustling around the big city has been exciting, commuting to and from work and school with my new fellow Londoners.

I grew up in South Jersey just over the river from Philadelphia, Go Birds! And it’s been a bit of an adjustment becoming accustomed to and discovering the best food around London. As someone who loves to eat, it’s been difficult replacing real pizza and Italian hoagies with fish and chips at a pub or curry on Brick Lane. At home, you’d find me watching football or playing pick-up hoops or on the golf course where I work as a caddy over the summer.

At school, I’m a senior analyst of the communications sector in Panther Equity, a complete student-run, equity only investment portfolio. This has been the biggest resource so far into my collegiate and professional career, being able to meet and learn from fellow students who have similar interests and a wide variety experiences across the financial and investment sectors. As an incoming freshman, I was dragged to the first meeting completely lost, having no experience with the markets and no investment background. Because students don’t take any coursework until upperclassman advanced classes related to these fields, this has been the foundation of my knowledge associated with investing and helped strengthen my professional development, preparing me for interviews and being able to converse with industry professionals.

I’m participating in the GBI London program due to the opportunity to take engaging classes that I wouldn’t be able to attend back at Pitt and to complete a challenging international internship. Studying abroad is a once in a lifetime experience because there most likely won’t be another point in your life that you can live in a foreign city for four months and completely immerse yourself in a different culture. I’ve never been out of the country before arriving in London just a few weeks ago and there’s definitely been an adjustment period. However, I’m figuring out how to navigate the tube and live like a local. 

Professionally, this a real opportunity to set myself apart from my peers by participating in an international internship. I work for a consulting firm with international offices and it’s a challenge to communicate in an efficient way with my colleagues from different countries who have much different backgrounds. The soft skills I can develop and experiences I will acquire will be invaluable as I can apply them to accomplishing my professional goals when I head back home to Pitt. Looking into the future, I’m sure that this semester will be an interesting adventure. It feels like there’s too much to accomplish and see in such a short amount of time.