My experience In Florence, Italy has been nothing short of amazing. A truly once in a lifetime opportunity that I am beyond blessed to be a part of and one I will cherish for the rest of my life. I’d like to thank the scholarship donors for providing aid to a number of us Pitt students. It certainly helped me and my colleagues as we got the chance to explore the world.
One of my biggest takeaways from the program is the friends I made along the way. Coming to Florence I had no idea who any of my 5 roommates were, but from the first night we started playing cards I could tell they would soon become some of my very best friends. We did everything together, from trying new restaurants, to getting late night gelato and going out just about every chance we had with one another. It was a bond that made this experience much more enjoyable than I could have ever imagined and I’m proud to call these guys my best friends.
Beyond my friends from Florence, the people I met around the world were just as accepting and friendly as the students I went to class with every day. From Morocco to Spain, Hungary, France, Germany, Prague, Austria, and Sweden, the one thing everyone shared in common was the respect, care, and acceptance of one another. All these interactions reminded me of something I learned in my cross-cultural psychology class, which was cultural competence. Cultural competence is “the ability of a person to effectively interact, work, and develop meaningful relationships with people of various cultural backgrounds.” This is not only something I had to apply traveling to a number of different countries, but something I think Europeans apply to their everyday lives more than we do back in the states. We all need to be more open minded and accepting towards one another. We’re all a lot more similar than we tend to believe.
Throughout my professional career and time remaining at Pitt I will carry with me the knowledge I learned from my Global Supply chains professor, Lorenzo Benini. Lorenzo is one of the best professors I have had throughout my time at Pitt and most certainly abroad. An entrepreneur who runs one of the most successful supply chain companies in all of Italy, the information he shared with us was truly invaluable. The concepts we learned will give me a serious advantage in the supply chain field and I look forward to keeping in touch with Lorenzo, who is more than a teacher, he is a lifelong friend.
My time in Italy has been eye-opening to say the least and I’m beyond grateful for everyone who made it possible. This experience will change the way I carry myself throughout life and I wouldn’t change a single day I had in Florence, Italy.