As the semester has gone on, my group and I have begun to develop our scope of work and project deliverables for our clients, NatureSeekers and DORCAS Women’s Group, in Trinidad and Tobago. After having our initial meetings with the clients, as well as our midterm meeting, there have already been some challenges we have faced. Additionally, as we begin to dive into the work, I am anticipating how these challenges will impact our final deliverables as we move forward.

Primarily, I think the ability to connect with them virtually will be difficult. I think finding a way to express our commitment to better our clients’ business, and get natives involved, will be a challenge as we are entirely virtual. Our job is to help them strengthen their awareness in the community and, since they are a non-profit, grow their business and donations through different social media platforms. Currently, the biggest impact they are facing is the COVID-19 rules and regulations the Trinidad and Tobago government has implemented. Since the beaches close at 10pm, their organization is unable to physically help the turtles and hatchlings make it to the ocean. The largest poaching season is March to August, thus there is no opportunity to participate in saving the turtles, which is their main mission. Additionally, Trinidad and Tobago put a halt to tourism, which is Nature Seekers biggest source of income. With less money, NatureSeekers unemployment increased as well as all business and organizations around them. As a result, this furthered the spike in poaching. This halt on tourism has also impacted NatureSeekers ability to generate revenue through craft fairs. Carnival, a large island festivity is unable to happen. At this festival, there are craft fairs which NatureSeekers usually is able to get a slot in to sell their pro-environment jewlrey. Without this fair, they continue to suffer from lost revenue.

Secondly, a difficulty the host country faces is developing connections, virtually. In the past, most of the client meetings would have taken place online for half the semester and then my group would have had the opportunity to travel to Trinidad and Tobago to meet and interact with the client. However, being fully virtual has put a strain on our ability to converse with the clients. This is a crucial change to how these clients and any student group was able to be successful in the past. Internet connection is unstable and choppy for our clients, which makes it difficult for my group and I to gain more information on how we can help them in our final project. This unstable internet also impacts some of our ideas, because we are implementing a social media campaign. Moving forward, if they attempt to implement some of the final ideas we have created for them, they may have difficulty keeping up with the specific social media platforms. This challenge will impact how my group chooses what to include in our project and how to deliver our feasible, final ideas.

While my group and I have only just had our client midterm check in and are beginning to investigate our objectives to translate them into deliverables, my perspective of global business is already changing.

One new perspective I have already gained is that the online platforms we have access to in the United States is no where near the same as Trinidad and Tobago’s. I am constantly used to having secure internet connection, whether that is my own data or wi-fi networks surrounding me, which I now realize I have taken for granted for. In contrast, my client’s business may not have the ability to secure a stable internet connection, or they may not have access to plans that are on the same platform as mine here. I also realize they may not have the support to achieve that same level. This issue has caused me to understand the value of communication, and how establish communication that works on both ends. The method that has deemed most accessible to my group and I this semester, that also works for our clients, is via email. Email is useful, and definitely allows for my group to stay in contact with all our clients when it comes to asking questions or presenting our scope of work. However, it does present the challenge of not having the ability to ask follow-up questions to their answers immediately. I now realize a key part of interacting with international clients via email is to try and anticipate follow-up questions I would not originally think of when first drafting a question. It also has taught me the importance of being thorough with what I am trying to say or ask of them.

Another new perspective I am beginning to gain is the idea of global citizenship and learning the importance of putting myself into another’s situation. The economy and typical day to day life in Trinidad and Tobago is completely different than me and my group’s here. While COVID-19 means we are unable to travel to our host country, I can still attempt to teach myself more about being a global citizen. Any preconceived notions or biases I may have about Trinidad and Tobago is something I will attempt to improve on the rest of the semester. At the next client meeting I have to update them on the work we have accomplished thus far, I plan to take a step back and give myself a chance to think through how my clients would view this opinion, and if it is actually feasible for them to accomplish. For example, my group and I had asked if they had thought of ways to deliver their mission and education on conservation through different virtual platforms due to COVID-19. At the time, this felt like to the right question to ask as it would help my group establish which direction to move with the social media campaign. However, I realize now that it may have been an inconsiderate question, as we had already begun to learn that their internet connection is not near what we have in our own homes. While they did respond with some ideas they hope to implement and needed our helping coming up with the ‘how’, I was holding a bias that they had all the resources to do so. Moving forward, I hope to become more aware of their situation prior to asking questions that may be entirely out of their reach.

Lastly, a perspective on global business that I did not realize the importance of until now, is accountability. While we may never have the chance to meet our clients in person or even see how the changes we recommend to them are implemented, being accountable and realistic for what we deliver is essential. This international consulting project is not just an ‘if, then’ situation, where my answers will disappear into a grade on my transcript. Rather, this project is in a real- life situation, where any decisions my group or I make will impact someone else. The notion of becoming accountable for my sensitivity towards the client, as well as seeing my actions through, will also develop my critical thinking skills in both a local and global perspective. Locally, I can apply the skills I learn from this project into the classroom. While some classes may feel as if I am just solving a problem, and doing my best to get it right, it does matter how I am accountable for what I am learning now and how I will apply that in the future. The more classes I continue to take at Pitt will prepare me for my career, which is why it is essential I utilize the critical thinking skills I am developing now and put them to use, as it will only help me in my future. Globally, how I interact with clients I meet will be crucial to developing my critical thinking skills. The more I am choosing to analyze I what is going on around me, and how I am thinking about what my actions will mean to those around me is, again, essential to the accountability I am learning from this international consulting project.

Many may think that studying abroad virtually is not worth the experience that would be achieved if it were in person. While it is a completely opposite experience, there are still many opportunities that can be achieved through engagement. As the semester goes on, I plan to put what I have learned about the norms of the host country, the challenges we will continue to face, and the skills I have learned the importance of thus far into action. Through active engagement with the client and my group, I plan to keep an open mind about how to achieve a successful end to this project. I am excited to continue to help our clients to the best of my ability, as well as overcome the challenges I mentioned above. Conducting meaningful global business is essential to being successful now, as well as in the future.