Hello to whoever is reading this : ) My name is Nicky Chien, and I’m a rising junior in the College of Business Administration majoring in Supply Chain Management and Business Information Systems with a certificate in International Business.

I am an international student from Taipei, Taiwan. I have been studying at Pitt for almost two years now. Being over 7000 miles away, a 16-hour flight from home has had me grow and become independent over the past two years, which is one of the reasons why I decided to participate in the International Internship Program in Berlin to experience a different culture and challenges this summer.

At Pitt, I am involved in Global Ties, an organization that helps bridge the gap between international students and domestic students on campus, and Alpha Kappa Psi, a professional business fraternity that focuses on professional development, and also the Taiwanese Student Association, a student organization that promotes Taiwanese culture on campus, and Incline Consulting Group, a student-run consulting organization.

Outside of school, I like exploring new places, trying out new restaurants, and working out. I particularly love walking to explore different places. Growing up in a walkable city of Taipei, I especially enjoy spontaneous walking trips and experiencing different sceneries. I also love trying out new places to eat with friends and family. I have tried a lot of different restaurants in Pittsburgh and am looking forward to finding good places to go to when I get back to campus in the fall!

I will be spending two months in Berlin for the IIP program and doing a full-time internship. I am really excited to visit  Germany for the first time. I am lucky to have been able to travel to Europe a few times with my family in the past, but I never got a chance to visit Germany, so I’m very excited and nervous to finally visit Germany and have the opportunity to gain professional work experience in a different culture. 

During the internship, I hope to grow both professionally and personally. I am looking forward to gaining professional skills by having hands-on practice and working with experienced professionals. I hope to foster my career goal of working with people from different cultural backgrounds through the program. This experience will help me learn and gain more insights into how to engage business within an international setting professionally, especially since Berlin is such a big international city. I am also looking forward to immersing myself in the German culture as I have always found it interesting. I have to say that I experienced quite a few culture shocks when I came to the US to study abroad even though I was relatively familiar with the American culture growing up. It makes me really curious and excited to see what culture differences would be like in Germany for me. 

I am really excited to see how much I will grow and gain out of the two months spent in Berlin. Hopefully I will pick up more German than basic survival words when I come back. Even though the journey hasn’t started yet, I am already sure that it will be one of the most amazing experiences and memorable moments during my summer days. I can’t wait to see what is ahead and enjoy the time in Berlin wholeheartedly.