This semester was truly one I will never forget. It was the perfect way to end my undergraduate experience at Pitt and I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to visit and study in such a unique location. Over the course of the semester, I took four courses – Australian History, Intercultural Communications, International Economics, and Global Cities. I also visited Brisbane, Airlie Beach, the Great Barrier Reef, and Melbourne in Australia on the weekends as well as Christchurch and Queenstown, New Zealand over spring break. I loved every single minute of the experience and would encourage anyone who is evenly remotely interested in studying abroad in Australia to go for it because you won’t regret it.

I also feel like this experience helped my grow personally and academically. Personally, studying abroad this semester has led to me being more open-minded and more comfortable meeting new people. I have a tendency to stay within my comfort zone at home, so going abroad really forced me to try new things. Academically, I definitely have a broader knowledge of the world through the Australian History course I took, and I improved on my writing skills due to the numerous essays I had to write throughout the semester. I also took an Intercultural Communications course, which taught me the importance of intercultural competency, a skill that will be valuable no matter where I travel in the future.

I will be graduating from Pitt Business in about a week, but I will be continuing at Pitt through the MS in Marketing Science program in the fall! I will certainly use the skills I have learned from this study abroad experience, especially when it comes to interacting with new people and working on group projects. Obviously not everyone in my program in the fall will be from Pitt undergrad, so being able to work with people from all different backgrounds will be very important and that’s definitely a skill I have improved upon through studying abroad in Sydney and in general. I feel that studying abroad gives me unique skills that will benefit we not only in my future career, but also in my life in general.