I’m Ryan Coughlin. I’m a rising junior at the University of Pittsburgh. I am pursuing a double major in finance and supply chain management. Hopefully I will be able to graduate with these degrees and go on to land a job, and I eventually will go back to school and get a masters in something, although I don’t know what I would want to do a masters in yet. The program that I am participating in is the International Internship in Dublin. The original reason that I chose this program in particular is that I have always wanted to go to Ireland. My family is originally from Ireland, so I have always had the urge to go and see it for myself. I know that Ireland is a place with lots of history, and I look forward to being able to go through and travel to the different parts of the country and see all that I will be able to see. I’ve heard that Ireland is a very beautiful country and I look forward to seeing some of it. It also helps that they speak English in Ireland, which is the only language I speak, that and a very small amount of Spanish. More than just my desire to see the country, I was motivated to pursue this opportunity for multiple reasons. I was very focused on getting an internship for this summer. I think that it will give me knowledge and experience that I will be able to use for the rest of my academic and professional career. I didn’t have much success with finding an internship at home for this summer, and so when I found out about the program I wanted to see if I would get in, so I filled out my application, and here I am now. I hope that this internship will show me what it is like to work in the real world. This will be my first full-time position, as I have only ever worked part-time in my jobs before and during college. It will give me a good introduction into the business world and the financial field, and it will show me if I really enjoy doing that kind of work. It will also teach me how to get along with other professional colleagues and how to fit into the workplace. Onto the personal side, I think that this internship will give me an opportunity to mature as a person. For one, it will show me how to balance a work/life schedule. How to get to work in a timely fashion, what it’s like to work a full work day. I think it will also make me appreciate my free time more, as now I have an abundance of it, and I won’t have as much of it anymore. I am also going to be on my own here. It’s up to me to do everything for myself. Wake up to my alarms, get myself ready for the day. You sleep in at school and miss a class, you just get up and go the next day. This is also the first time where I haven’t had a stream of income for myself, since I usually work over the summer at my part-time job, so I am going to need to learn how to budget effectively. That is a good skill that I really should learn sooner rather than later. This internship will be the perfect opportunity to do just that. I know that it won’t be that easy during this program. I am also excited at the opportunity of getting to meet new people, and getting to see how things are different in Ireland than they are here at home. Academically, I hope that the program will teach me how to balance working while having academic work to do. I know that it isn’t much work, but it’s something. It would be a useful thing for me to learn if I want to go back and get my masters, cause I would probably still work full-time while I did a masters program. I also want it to make me more motivated to do my work. In the past, I have been a bit of a procrastinator and can be a bit lazy at times, and I am hoping that through this internship I can break those bad habits and hopefully create some new ones instead. Overall, I am excited for the program. I am excited for all of the things that I am going to do and be able to experience over these next two months.