All I can say is… WOW.

The Haller Global Honors Fellowship not only met my expectations for an introductory business experience, but far exceeded them. At first, I thought it was going to be an experience where my hand is held by Pitt Faculty, and that I would have minimal hands-on experience. Boy, was I wrong! After the first day, I felt like someone pushed me off a cliff– I had no idea what to do, but I had 11 other students who felt the same way as me. As the fellowship progressed, things got less scary, our professors, speakers, and program manager were a tremendous help, giving us just enough guidance to figure out the world of consulting for ourselves.

There is so much to learn from this experience, for both academic and social settings. In the classroom, I’ve learned to be unafraid when asking questions and confident when suggesting solutions to hypothetical problems: no idea is too “outside the box”! As for peer interactions, I’ve learned that taking a chance, being bold and outgoing, can lead to both professional success and new friendships.

Through my experience, I learned to be more confident in myself. Of course, humility is key, but being assured that my ideas are valid, and that I won’t be immediately shot down by my peers was a really important experience for me. It was very reassuring. Additionally, working on a project of this magnitude over Zoom definitely forced me to go out of my comfort zone to be confident when initiating communication with my team.

To me, the greatest reward from this experience was seeing the smiles of our clients during our presentation. It was in that moment that I realized that, with my team, we did something really important, and that people would benefit from our work in the future.

My personal goals are pretty much the same: continue to listen and learn from those around me, and to continue working on my group project skills!

I am so grateful for this experience, and I could not have asked for a better way to kick off my career at the University of Pittsburgh. I hope you all enjoyed my blogs!