Hello! My name is Emily and I just finished my sophomore year at the University of Pittsburgh. I am currently working toward getting a major in Information Science and a minor in Secondary Teacher Education. I would like to work in the technology field after college would eventually enjoy becoming a teacher. When it comes to what specifically I want to do in the tech field after college, I am still figuring it out. I either want to go into data analysis, UI/UX design, or cybersecurity. I hope that my experiences working an internship this summer will help me narrow down what I want to do with my major post graduation.

At the University of Pittsburgh, I am involved in a few clubs that include both of my interests, technology and education. The first club is a technological fraternity called Kappa Theta Pi. I just spent the past year as the New Member Educator initiating new members into the fraternity. Next year I will serve as the Vice President of the club and this is something I am really looking forward to! I am also a tour guide on campus and have been since freshman year. I really enjoy being the person who introduces families and potential students around campus. Lastly, I just spent a semester working with the STEM Coding Lab whose mission is to bring STEM education to underfunded schools throughout Pittsburgh. Specifically, I worked in three different schools with 3rd-7th graders teaching lessons spanning from scratch.mit.edu, Hummingbird Finch Robotics, LEGO Robotics, HTML, and CSS. Throughout all of these experiences, I have fostered a love for the intersection of technology and education.

Outside of the classroom, my interests include hiking, reading, and biking. My favorite genre of books is dystopian or fantasy, and I am currently reading the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J Maas. I also really enjoy going to concerts, and the most recent one I’ve been to is Hozier. However, I am a huge Swiftie so the best concert I have been to has to be the Eras tour. Other artists I am into are Chappell Roan, Olivia Rodrigo, Noah Kahan, and Mac Miller. A little more about me, I am originally from Rockland County, New York, which is about an hour from New York City. Even though I live in the suburbs, I feel like I am a city person at heart, which is how I ended up going to the University of Pittsburgh.

I chose the International Internship Program: Prague because I have always known I would study abroad in college, I just had to narrow down where. I liked the internship programs because as a rising junior, this internship experience would serve as a necessary introduction to the workforce. When it came to deciding between the different locations, Prague really stood out to me. It is a small, walk-able city that will allow me to get immersed in the cultural environment quickly. The location of the country in comparison to the rest of Europe was also a deciding factor. I plan on exploring other parts of Europe during my time abroad and hopefully, Prague’s location will make traveling more accessible.

I hope to learn a lot from this trip, professionally and culturally. I have always lived in the United States, so I am very excited to learn more about the culture of the Czech Republic. Additionally, I look forward to the confidence I will gain from living on my own in a new country. I know that there will be an adjustment period, but I know that these new experiences will help me grow as a person. I also look forward to learning more about working in a professional environment. This will be my first internship, so I know I will learn a lot from my boss and coworkers.

I just received my placement for this summer and I will be working on the Data Team for an online car marketplace called Carvago. I will be able to work alongside a team that uses machine learning to filter through car advertisements across Europe and decide which ones are good to advertise to Carvago users. I have learned a lot about machine learning at the University of Pittsburgh and I am looking forward to seeing a real life application of it. On top of working on my programming skills, I also hope to develop my soft skills along the way. I am excited to work in an office and to learn how to be a good employee in a professional setting.

Overall, I am very excited to travel to Prague in a few short days and I look forward to spending my summer there!