I have gained intercultural communication skills as I am working remotely with a diverse team at my internship with Hills Pumas FC. Cultural competence is a skill that I have learned about in my global internships course and it has taught me to understand different values, attitudes, and beliefs while living in a different country. I can’t imagine a better way to learn this skill than to study and intern abroad. Collaboration is another soft skill I have used a lot in my internship as I am working closely with a research intern and I believe our work has proven us to be a great team together. I have also enhanced my presentation skills. With smaller classes of less than 10 people, I have become more comfortable with talking in class and giving my honest opinion.

I have gained a lot of experience with using Canva during my internship. I was familiar with it before coming to Australia, but typically only with making presentations for class. During my internship, I have been taking the key points from my co-intern’s research and making infographics with that information so that parents, coaches, and other community members can easily access the main ideas. I have also gained access to SquareSpace with my internship so that I can make edits to their website and publish the articles that my co-intern and I collaborated on to write. I have never worked with SquareSpace before so it has been very interesting to navigate those tools and learn what goes on behind the scenes of maintaining a website. Due to being remote, I do not have someone next to me to ask questions, so it has been a very valuable experience as I am teaching myself how to use these tools. This has given me more trust in myself when making smaller decisions, instead of asking for help right away. It does not feel like the end of the world when I make a mistake, I just keep playing around with the website until I am able to correct my mistake as quickly as possible. 

These skills have helped me move forward with obtaining academic goals as I feel more motivated to participate in my classes when I get back to the University of Pittsburgh. I have gained a new sense of confidence in myself as I have not been able to rely on others as much since I am working remotely and participating in smaller classes. I have learned that participating and being proactive in my work truly benefits me as a student and intern, and it does not matter what others think as long as what I am doing is helping me learn and explore what this program has to offer.

I have included an image of the infographic I am most proud of so far from my internship.