I am Isabella Catanese, an undergrad sophomore at the College of Business Administration. I plan on double majoring in Finance and Business Analytics and minoring in German. I work as a Student Tour Guide for the Nationality Rooms Program, where I give tours of the Cathedral of Learning’s Nationality Rooms to the public and assist with events. I have a passion for learning about and experiencing different languages and cultures, although I am particularly interested in Germanic Europe – a major reason this particular program spoke to me.

I will attend Vienna University of Economics and Business, commonly known as WU. WU does not offer any on-campus housing, I am staying with a student housing company called OeAD, which hosts students all across Austria, so I will be living with other students who may or may not also be my classmates at WU. My dorm is only a fifteen-minute walk from the campus and a twenty-minute bus ride from the city center! The neighborhood that I am living in is called Leopoldstadt, which lies directly on the Danube. Leopoldstadt boasts many shops, cafés, and even an amusement park. Better yet, it is a 15-minute bus drive from Innerestadt (inner city), so I can easily visit many historic castles and other landmarks with ease!

While I am not in Austria yet, I have noticed many differences between the cultures of Austria and America. For example, classes at WU are not scheduled as regularly or weekly as at Pitt but are rather scheduled on a specific date. I have a class that officially meets seven times, another meets eight times, and my other classes meet less. However, these class periods are considerably longer than what is offered for most classes at Pitt, so the workload about evens out. There’s a lot more emphasis on independence and student responsibility in Austria (and throughout other parts of Europe). Additionally, in one’s classes, final exams are often a considerable portion of one’s grade for the class – fail the final, fail the class.

I have a couple of main goals for participating in this program, some of which are already on their way to completion despite not officially starting. One primary goal is to expand my German education background from outside the borders of Germany and into the greater Germanic region. This will also be the first time I am “living alone” and off-campus, which will challenge me to develop better time management and household (cooking/cleaning) skills that I can apply to my personal and professional life. My most important goal is to expand my professional horizon while abroad, as I intend to work abroad in my professional career. To be successful in this goal, I must have a solid cultural understanding of the region or know how to pick up on the hidden aspects of the local culture. My time in Vienna will allow me to develop those cultural observation skills while deepening my understanding of Viennese and Austrian culture, giving me an advantage compared to my peers when it comes to working within this region.