Hey Everybody!

My names Tina. I’m a sophomore in Pitt Business studying Marketing with Certificates in Leadership and Ethics and Sports Management. I have great interests in media, sports, and traveling. In my free time I volunteer with several Pittsburgh non-profits including EMBRACE and The Children’s Home. This will be my second study abroad with Pitt Business. In my last experience, I visited Italy for two weeks and studied the supply chain of the fashion industry. It’s true what they say, once you start to travel you’ll never want to stop. So yes, I have officially caught the travel bug. And now it’s time to go again!

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This blog will be exploring my week-long spring break trip to Trinidad and Tobago, a small country in the Caribbean just off the coast of Venezuela. Not only will I be exploring the world but following my passion to help others. This is no normal spring break trip though, for I’ll be growing personally and professionally through diverse cultural experiences and proejcts. I can’t wait to take you on this journey!

This particular study abroad trip is specific to those in the CPLE program, a program I am proud to be a part of. Our general task is to offer consultation advice to businesses. For this, we’ll be taking a semester-long course in addition to the trip, a course titled Global Service Learning. In this course we are given a consulting project for a non-profit in Trinidad. We spend the first part of the class learning about service learning, and the second part on applying what we learned. This includes researching and creating ideas to help our client. We are currently on year four of the ten-year plan and in this year we’ll be working with the DORCAS Women’s Group in Matelot as well as Nature Seekers in Matura. Nature Seeker’s purpose is to provide a unique ecotourism experience while also working to conserve their beautiful home. They have coined the phrase ‘Conservation through Experience’, which fits perfectly with what they do. DORCAS Women’s Group also has a similar mission, although theirs is more focused on rebuilding the regions ecotourism in order to provide jobs and stability to those who live there. This is also a transition year, as in the past we had only worked with DORCAS Women’s Group, but now we work with Nature Seekers as well. This is a recently added feature, and one I am thrilled to be working with.

For clarification for anyone who doesn’t know, Service Learning is the integration of study and hands-on activity outside of the classroom. It is in essence, the epitome of experiential learning. In addition to this, service learnings are a collaborative effort between a group of students and a community organization with the goal of bettering the community in mind. We are simply trying to help others. In this, we act as professional consultants. Our focus is to help our clients grow ecotourism in their region. For this year, we’ll be focusing on creating a marketing strategy for Nature Seekers in order to better spread their message of environmental awareness. Other objectives include researching potential business partnerships between both groups and brainstorming logistics processes to increase the sale of products created by Nature Seekers. Specifically, we’ll be working on marketing their jewelry brand called Turtle Warrior. Much of our work will be done pre-departure, where we’ll be conducting research in order to decide how to best advice our client. In-country, we’ll be focusing on gathering any primary research and conducting any workshops if need be.

One topic I was confused about before taking this class was, why service learning? Why not just call it community service? Well, many believe service learning and community service to be synonyms‚ me included, when in fact they’re entirely different. I mean… both are helping an organization, right? Correct, but also wrong. Service learning is a past, present and future commitment to help an organization. It’s about securing the present, but also looking towards the future to provide help for years to come. Service learning is also more mutually beneficial. For not only do we get real-world experience working for a client, but we’re also able to give them a tangible result. It’s a win-win on both ends, and a more meaningful way to give back.

All in all, while this project is a lot of work, I believe the work I’m doing is meaningful. This is just one of the many reasons I signed up for this trip. Many times, we’re given projects in school that are great, but don’t give me the feeling that I’m changing lives. With this, there’s no question that working for DORCAS Women’s Group and Nature Seekers is changing lives. And not just theirs, but mine as well. In addition to the meaningful work, I’ll be able to have an incredibly unique experience. I can learn in an environment I never would have been able to learn in before. This is just one of the amazing things Pitt Business does for us. In addition to this, I’ll be given the opportunity to immerse myself in a foreign culture. This will be my first time in the Caribbean and I’m very excited to live among the Trinis for a week. I believe it’s important to have a worldly view when not only working in the business world but living in general. The world is increasingly becoming more and more talkative. There are cultures outside of our own that we should learn and understand. After my trip to Italy, I learned that people are people no matter where you go. We all smile, laugh and cry. It’s a beautiful experience to connect with someone who doesn’t live like you do or maybe even speak the same language.

I’m super grateful for this opportunity, and to Pitt Business for doing so much to provide their students with exceptional experiences. We’ve had so much support from advisors and faculty in helping us start this project. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

I hope you guys enjoy reading about my journey. Talk to you all soon!

Xoxo Tina