This semester was a once in a lifetime opportunity I will forever be grateful for. I studied business in an international environment, and took classes from professors all across the world while living in a completely new country with a foreign language. This allowed me to grow an immense amount personally, academically, and professionally. 

On a professional note, I was given the opportunity to work with peers and learn from professors from all across the world. This was an incredible opportunity that allowed me to learn an immense amount, not only about other countries, but from other students from those countries. This first hand was an incredible privilege, and helped me deepen my desire to explore international business. From multiple group projects to all different types of presentations, I participated in conversations with language barriers, cultural differences, and unique perspectives. I think in terms of Pitt business, this gives me an advantage. I have experienced business conversations and learned about business in a genuine international environment, something not all of my peers will be able to say upon graduation. 

In terms of academics, this experience has also allowed me to grow in my understanding of academics in general but also requirements across the world and in different countries. I have learned new techniques to study, completed academic tasks I have never been given before, and understood expectations and requirements in a foreign academic environment. All new aspects I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to have learnt. Skills that I will be able to take and incorporate into the rest of my classes here at Pitt business. 

While academic and professional growth were large portions of my development during my time in Austria, I can say I largely grew as a person. I am not the same person I was when I left the country, and it is for the better. I have gained perspective I never would have gained otherwise. Perspective that has allowed me to better understand what academics, life in general, and life in different countries of people my age, look like. It is extremely different and something I believe can only really be understood upon first-hand experience. Being with people from all across the world, in a new and different environment, taught me to become more self-sufficient, worldly, and educated. Educated in the sense that some ignorance I may have had before, has vanished. I have learned more than I ever thought, and seen/heard more new ideas and realities that helped shape me in growing personally. 

I am genuinely so beyond grateful for the opportunity to have done and seen all I did, and will carry these memories and lessons with me for the rest of my life.