Hi! My name is Anita and I’m super excited (kinda nervous) to be leaving for Mussoorie, India in exactly one week!

I was born and raised in Point Breeze, a residential neighborhood in the East End of Pittsburgh. I am a senior which means I am delaying my graduation to August to pursue the Leadership in the Himalayas program. After I officially graduate, I will have majored in Marketing, minored in French, and also will have received two certificates – one in Global Studies and another in Digital Media.

Outside of academic life, I have participated in a couple of extracurricular activities; I wrote and produced content for Studio Four One Two, a magazine club at Pitt, and also was part of the Club Cross Country Team. As an upperclassmen, I focused a lot of my energy on gaining work experience and since beginning college, I have interned at the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank, at American Eagle Outfitters, and at a start-up. When I’m not working or studying, you can catch me exploring the arts and culture scene in Pittsburgh, or running through the trails that connect the city together.

While at Pitt, I have participated in three global experiences and this one will officially mark my fourth! I have participated in the Virtual Global Business Institute, Plus 3 Ireland, and most recently, I was an exchange student at KEDGE Business School in Marseille, France. While a lot of the experiences you deal with while living abroad can be challenging, I felt that with each global experience I could feel myself growing.

I wanted to participate in the Leadership in the Himalayas program not only because it sounded really cool (duh), but also because it is unlike anything I have ever done before. I am excited to visit a country in the non-Western world for the first time, push my physical abilities, and challenge my leadership skills. As I am about to graduate, I am thinking a lot about what I see myself doing as a long-term career in the future. Since the program stresses understanding your strengths and developing your own personal leadership style, I am interested to see how this program will help me discover a bit more about who I am.