Hi everyone! We have just about reached the end of this semester and it is certainly one most of us will never forget for the rest of our lives. Not only did it feel like it went on forever, but we were forced to overcome many challenges both as students and personally. Obviously, the main challenge for all of us was the outbreak of COVID-19. This resulted in our group being unable to travel to Bolivia and the transition to online learning with virtual classes for the entire university. However, we had to keep pushing to get through the semester and complete all the work and classes that we had started and planned to do. That brings us to now, where our group has finished our research and work, completed our final presentations via Zoom, and submitted our final reports for our client, CEOLI. It was not always the easiest times throughout this project, but it was a project and experience that I will remember and be able to use moving forward in my education and career.

Throughout the semester, I have had the opportunity to learn many lessons due to this experience and all the changes that we went through. I may have learned some of these lessons if the course and semester went as it normally would; however, it did not so I go the chance to learn a few more lessons that I can take with me into future courses, projects, and jobs. One of the lessons that I learned throughout this experience was always be adaptable. You never know what it can happen in life or what will be thrown at you, so prepare the best you can for these changes and be adaptable to ensure that you can overcome these challenges and still have success. Another lesson that may seem obvious that I got from this experience is to utilize your team members and always work as a team. When you have the option to work with a team and bounce ideas off each other it can allow you to accomplish a lot more than when you try to do all the work yourself. Not only can you accomplish more as a team, but you the quality of work can be that much better as you use and build off each other’s ideas until you find the best solution. Not everyone has that creative or the specific analytical skills so using your team members can allow you to accomplish things that you may not have been able to do alone. One of the most important lessons that I have learned throughout this experience is to not take what you have for granted. Anything can happen in life and it could result in you losing something that you enjoy or that you were looking forward to. For the rest of my group and I, we learned this as we lost the opportunity to travel to Bolivia which was an important part of the trip where we would have been able to gather valuable experiences and information that we needed for this project. This can apply to many things in life and have multiple meanings, but one way that I view this is through the idea of taking advantage of the amazing opportunities that you have now in college as you may not get these opportunities again. Therefore, this experience has taught me a lot as I got the opportunity to learn many key lessons that I will use and remember moving forward.

This project has allowed me to develop numerous transferrable skills despite not being to travel. One of the most obvious transferable skills that I developed and utilized throughout this project was flexibility. This is due to me being able to work on a project that was heavily focused in sales and marketing, whereas I do not have major experience or expertise within those fields. In addition, I gained flexibility through making the change to using virtual meetings that my team and I are were not used to but needed to do to gather necessary data and ask questions. This skill is important for my future professional career as I hope to work in consulting, which is a field that can consist of many industries and projects where I will need to be flexible and adapt to the constant changes and new work. Some other transferrable skills that I developed throughout this course that are extremely valuable for my future are communication and analytical skills, in addition to teamwork as I go the opportunity work with 7 other students while overcoming numerous challenges.

One of the most important things to consider in business and specifically when working towards deliverables is the client relationship. For our project specifically, this included the existing relationship with our clients of Amizade and CEOLI. CEOLI is our in-country client located in Cochabamba and we currently are in year four of a ten-year commitment to working with them. Pitt Business’ existing relationship was extremely important for our specifically as this year the relationship was tested harder than it has ever been before. In the beginning of the year, Pitt showed the dedication and commitment they have with CEOLI as we stuck with the plan to travel to Bolivia even with the political instability and riots that were going throughout parts of Bolivia. Unfortunately, Pitt had to make the tough decision to cancel all spring break trips including our trip to Bolivia. As this does create a greater challenge for our current relationship, our group and professors remained committed to the work that we were doing. We reached out to CEOLI and Amizade to make sure that they know we would be continuing the work and hope that we could gain support through virtual meetings. Due to existing relationship and the trust that we have formed, CEOLI believed in our commitment and was willing to make things work and set up as many meetings as possible to help us gather the research and information that we needed to complete our deliverables. They were willing to go out their way and reach out to personal contacts, including local business owners and a marketing consulting group, to meet with us via Zoom to answer any questions that our group had. In addition, they were willing to do this during off hours which shows their dedication to help us and continue this relationship moving forward. I believe that this year made the relationship with CEOLI even stronger as our group showed our passion to helping CEOLI even after we lost the opportunity to travel to Bolivia and the amazing cultural experience. If the relationship and commitment was able to get through this, then I hope that it should be able to last through most things that happen throughout the rest of the ten-year commitment.

This semester and the global service-learning program has provided me an amazing experience that I can use and talk about in the future including during interviews. Overall, this was a client-based consulting project with a non-profit organization in Cochabamba, Bolivia named CEOLI. Our team was tasked to continue working as part of the ten-year contract with our clients and help CEOLI work towards financial stability by increasing sales channels, in addition to developing a marketing plan and strategy for creating a juice stand. I was forced to overcome adversity and be adaptable as our team was unable to travel to Bolivia and gather valuable data and research due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My team was able to adapt and utilize secondary research and continued dedication and communication with our clients to set up virtual meetings that allowed us to gather necessary data for our deliverables. I gained valuable experience in addition to communication and analytical skills that I can use in my future.

I truly enjoyed this experience and program; however, I hope that none of the future groups have to go through the same experience as our group and are able to travel to Bolivia to meet everyone at CEOLI. As I have made it to the end of my global service-learning experience, I do have some advice and things the future groups should keep in mind as they begin and go through the program as well. The first piece of advice that I have for future groups is to be aware of the timing and to not push off the work before the in-country aspect of the program. The end of the project can come on you very fast after spring break, so it is important to have as much done as possible before you travel. Another important thing to remember is to utilize all the resources that you, including the experience of everyone helping you and the past students that went through the program. Everyone is willing to help you and shares that passion for the project, so it is important to know that you can ask questions and get help in any way that you need to accomplish what you want. The idea of asking for help goes with my next piece of advice as it is important to use your whole team throughout this project. If you work as a team the whole time you will be able to come up with and build off many new ideas which will lead to accomplishing as much as you can. My final advice for future groups is something that is obviously very difficult, but that is to prepare for the unexpected. You never know what can and will happen on a project so you should be prepared to adapt and make changes based on whatever happens. There is no perfect way to prepare but remember to think about all aspects of the situation and to understand what you as students are truly capable of accomplishing.

Well this is the end for me. Though it was not exactly what I had hoped for or expected, I hope you enjoyed hearing about my experience and all that I learned throughout this course and the challenges that we faced. Thanks and stay safe!