My experience in South Africa has been extraordinary. Visiting Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town, and experiencing such a beautiful country with a very harsh and recent history, has greatly contributed to my journey of expanding who I am as a person and my knowledge of other people and cultures.

I’ve seen a lot of growth in myself personally and academically, and I hope these will also contribute to my professional growth in the future through this global experience.

Starting with personal growth, this is the first time I have traveled abroad with people I did not know well and by myself. I probably met everyone I traveled with just once or twice before leaving for this country, and I flew all the way to South Africa alone. This experience has really helped me grow as a person, venturing out into the world by myself, taking it all in, and experiencing other people’s cultures. Being both Nigerian and American, I feel like I have grown up around the same people and tend to have the same experiences with everyone around me, so there tends to be a lack of diversity in interactions. Venturing out of the country and experiencing other people’s ways of life has truly helped me realize that there is much more to the world outside the bubble I have been in for the past 21 years. This experience has also motivated me to want to experience more cultures that I may not even be aware of. Even if I cannot experience them in person, I now want to research them and learn more to gain knowledge about these cultures, just as they do about the United States.

Academically, being able to take a class outside the College of Business Administration and with people who do not share the same major as me has been very helpful for my academic growth. Seeing how other people analyze texts, solve problems, and hearing the vocabulary and thought processes of other students and professors outside my academic discipline has expanded my academic horizons and what I can bring to the table. Professionally, I believe this experience will help me in future job interviews and interactions within the workplace, enabling me to engage well with a variety of people.

There are so many takeaways from this program that it’s difficult to sum them all up, but if I had to identify three, they would be: understanding the world around me, building relationships with people outside of CBA, and embracing diverse perspectives.

I plan to incorporate these takeaways during my last year at Pitt Business by researching more about global events, including those in less popular countries, and joining organizations outside of CBA to meet people from different disciplines.