Hi! I am Katherine (Kat) Bollinger and I am a rising junior here at the University of Pittsburgh in the College of Business Administration majoring in Supply Chain Management and Business Analytics with a minor in German. I am originally from south-central PA so Pittsburgh is not too far of a drive for me. Before attending Pitt, I would come out to the area a couple of times a year to visit family so Pittsburgh has always been a second home for me. Here on campus, I am a part of the business sub-team for Panther Racing, which is the Formula SAE (society of automotive engineers) team here on campus, and the Vice President of RCMBA. Off-campus, most of my time is spent at the field, track, or rink as I am a big soccer, motorsport, and hockey fan. This past weekend, my sisters and I drove nine hours to see the GMR Grand Prix for IndyCar at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Seeing the race with them was the final thing we all did together before I leave in a few days.

This summer, I will be completing the International Internship Program (IIP) in Berlin, Germany. Germany has always been an interest of mine since middle school. It all started with soccer and the 2014 World Cup. After watching Germany win the tournament, I decided that they were going to be the team I supported at an international level. I did not watch much domestic soccer growing up as my dad always had the European leagues on TV. To get closer to the team that was thousands of miles away, I decided to teach myself German in middle school. When I got to high school, I continued with it and knew that when I got to college, I was going to study it there as well. As a language learner, one of the main goals is to travel to the country where the language you are learning is spoken. You can see how much progress you have made, speak with native speakers, and see all the things you learned in class. Coming into Pitt, I knew I wanted to study abroad, and Germany was the only option I ever really considered. When I learned of the IIP during my freshman year, I knew that come my sophomore year, I was going to apply. I specifically chose Berlin, not only because of Germany but because Germany is a powerhouse for supply chain management and logistics. Completing an internship there would give me insight that I could never gain here. And now, in just a week, I will start my internship!

I have had many years to think about this moment and what I would like to achieve. It has always been a goal of mine to travel to Germany and this will also be my first time abroad so I am looking forward to total independence. Academically, I would like to see what I have learned so far in my business classes apply to the real world. When my professors teach, they mention their real-world experience and how they have seen what they are teaching in their former jobs. Having a moment like that would be nice, where I complete something and think, “Hey, I learned this in my operations management class”. I will also get to achieve my goal of assessing how good my German actually is. In an academic setting, I have been learning German since my freshman year of high school, so about six years. No matter how many essays I write, or speaking assessments I do, I always think about how my German would do in a real-world situation, and this program is the perfect place to test that. If I find that my German is not as good as I would like it to be, I have eight weeks to work on it. I can also improve my German in the professional setting as I have not had much time to learn vocab for that specific area yet. The biggest thing that I hope to get out of this program is the professional experience. This will be my first internship in my field of study. I do not know what to expect but I think the unknown part of it is what I am looking forward to. I plan on absorbing as much information as possible as I work with my coworkers and complete projects. When I come back to the USA in July and start looking for internships in the following summer, I will have a different perspective on the industry that some of my peers might not have and that is one of the major benefits of this program. 

It is only a few days before I fly out and I could not be more excited for what is to come.