The past two weeks have been crammed with long days of studying and preparing for midterms. The anticipation of next week fills me with joy as I think about the new experiences, warm weather, and turtles that I’ll encounter! It is hard to believe that we are already at the point in the semester where it is time to go to Trinidad. It seems like the semester just began, and I was sitting in class with my group for the first time hearing about all that we would be accomplishing over the course of this semester. Over the last two months, I have gotten to know the team I will be traveling and working with alongside our client, Nature Seekers. I believe that as a team, we have developed several solid solutions to provide Nature Seekers and help improve their organization.

With the travels being less than a week away, I am filled with great excitement. First of all, I am excited for the warm weather (I’m sick of being in the cold 😊). Though it could be intimidating, I am also looking forward to immersing myself in a new culture. We gain so much from new experiences such as knowledge that can continue to be shared. I am eager to learn the culture and life of local Trinidadians and experience their way of life. I also look forward to trying new foods. I typically have a simple and plain diet, but here I plan to step out of my comfort zone and explore the new foods this new culture has to offer. Stepping out of my comfort zone is not an easy task, but as I have been getting older, I have been working on it. I know going on this trip will definitely push me in amazing ways.

Not only will this opportunity benefit me personally, but it excites me to think about how it will guide me  academically and professionally as well. This Global Service Learning course is part of my academic career here at Pitt, and through it, I have gained immense knowledge that I will be able to apply towards my future goals and plans. It is an incredible opportunity to apply this learned knowledge into a real world scenario in Nature Seekers. Being able to observe first hand how Nature Seekers runs their organization will allow me to gain more insight that can be used in further assisting them. Professionally, I know this experience will benefit my communication skills that will undoubtedly help me within my future career. We will be in constant communication with our client throughout all of next week, which will provide great opportunities to build relationships. This experience will also teach adaptability, a key skill when it comes to professional environments. While we are prepared for different situations and have a mock draft of our deliverables planned out, we are ready to hear from Nature Seekers. We are ready and willing to follow their lead, our clients.

However, all this excitement does not come without a few concerns. Being from the United States, there will be some cultural differences that our team will have to work through. One difference is their pace of life. Trinidadians are known to run on “Trini Time”. This basically means they have more of a laid back and relaxed mindset. This is a very different mindset from how we work in the United States. Here we work in a very fast, high-stress environment where we take pride in getting as much accomplished in a short period of time. This doesn’t mean that Trinidadians are not goal and work oriented, it just means that they like to take their time and work at their own pace when it comes to different situations. The relaxed attitudes could mean that strict deadlines might not be met at the specific times. Another cultural difference that we will likely encounter will be with language. The official language in Trinidad is English; therefore, it will not be as difficult as speaking a whole new language. However, Trinidadians tend to speak with a strong accent so there may be some difficulties understanding each other. They also use words that are not familiar to us in the United States.  Some examples of those words are “lime” which is a meeting of friends hanging out or a “fete” which is a major party. Hopefully, these differences will not hinder communication. The last cultural difference between the United States and Trinidad would be the individualism rates. The United States is an extremely individualistic country, for example we do work in groups but there isn’t much emphasis on building strong relationships within those groups. Deep connections aren’t built in the business world. Americans get the job done and move on. That is quite different for Trinidad, where they place a strong importance on developing strong relationships. Trinidadians believe everyone should take care of each other and develop connections to foster strong group work. The stress on collectivism and strong relationships will be important when we are interacting with our client, Nature Seekers. We need to develop a genuine relationship and connection with them so that we can be successful within our project and help them achieve the goals that they want to achieve through this process. Even with these challenges, I am positive it will be a successful trip.

I believe that this experience will teach me more than I can imagine. I will personally gain a lot of knowledge through this service learning trip. Throughout this global service learning experience, I expect that I will be able to gain a deeper understanding of experiencing a different culture, communication, adaptability, and self-reflection skills. I touched upon some of these aspects earlier in my blog, but I want to elaborate on how I believe I will further grow in these four areas. First, we will be given a first hand experience of what it is like to experience a new culture. I will be able to deepen my understanding of diverse cultures, by first hand experiencing a new one. I will be able to see how the Trinidadian culture lives their daily lives, and what they value to be important in their lives. While I do have so much respect for other cultures already, I think that this will help me to see other perspectives and gain more knowledge and respect for other cultures. Regarding communication, I will be able to heighten my active listening skills. Through communication with individuals from Nature Seekers and other individuals we will interact with through this experience, I will be able to develop my listening and communication skills to another level. Adaptability is another thing I will be able to learn through this experience. I personally am an individual who plans every minute of their day, but being on this trip, I am not the one planning it. I am adapting to other individuals’ schedules. There may be unexpected changes with our itinerary, whether it be the client has to change something, or weather conditions cause disruptions, I cannot fully guess what it will be. We also have to be flexible when we show our deliverable drafts to the client. They may not like it and we might have to change the direction of our ideas. Lastly, I believe my self-reflection skills will grow a lot through this process. Experiencing this process will allow me to grow as an individual by expanding my comfort zone, and overall going forward with unfamiliar activities.

In class, we have been learning a lot about what service learning truly entails. This has really resonated with me while thinking about the purpose of this experience, and how it will impact the community and the nonprofit organization we are working with. Service learning is a way that individuals can gain unique perspectives in learning. They can grow immensely as learners and individuals using this method because you are applying the content of the course in a real life situation. We have also learned about the importance of developing partnerships and relationships. This is extremely important since we are working directly with a client. We don’t want to build a bad relationship with our client. Important factors in building a strong partnership are values such as accountability, respect, and collaboration. Without those values, partnerships are not as strong. You need accountability because you need to be able to trust your partner, and vice versa. If there is no respect in a relationship, the relationship will not be a true partnership either. Collaboration involves everyone working together to create the best ideas and wanting to develop the best outcome together as a team or partnership. These are skills that I will be able to utilize in my future one day. 

Overall, I am honored to be part of this group and excited to grow as an individual through this next week in Trinidad. I eagerly anticipate meeting with our client, Nature Seekers. I also look forward to gaining academic and professional experiences, seeing a new culture, and developing personally. I believe this experience will be a once in a lifetime opportunity and I cannot wait to see how I will grow through it. As I prepare for departure this week, I continue to think about all of the new things that I will see, how I will grow, and most importantly how we will be able to benefit our client in the long run.