Now that I am back home and unpacked I can really reflect on the past 6 weeks abroad. Studying abroad was something that I had always dreamt about and knew that it was something I wanted to partake in during my 4 years of college. Both of my parents didn’t study abroad and they had always told me that it was their biggest regret during their college experience. I am so incredibly grateful that I have been able to take the time as I am young to travel and experience a whole new culture all while bettering my academic knowledge.

Every week of my trip was filled with so many hands on classroom activities, museum visits, and travels all over the country of Italy. The two classes I took while in Italy was Exploring the Global City: Florence and International Marketing. Both classes allowed me to discover and learn how each topic was related to Florence. We had in class field trips where we could see the effects tourism and humans have on the city around us and how much Florence means to the marketing industry. Something I particularly enjoyed about my marketing class was how we had to create an international marketing plan for a real company who hasn’t yet infiltrated the Italian market and out plan for it to do so. This allowed me to be creative and see all the little parts that goes into the expansion of companies to different countries. This also opened up the doors to a completely new career interest for me, I found this process to be so interesting and I think it may be something I would like to do after graduating. Another thing that I made sure to prioritize while I was studying abroad was to explore as much of Italy as I could. With my roommates, we visited more than 15 places in Italy which looking back on is so crazy. My two most favorite places we visited was Capri and Lake Como. They were both so beautiful that they almost looked fake. It is such a surreal experience to see places that I’ve always seen on line or in books in real life. We filled every moment with something and I could not be more proud of how we went about our experience.

Through studying abroad, I met so many new people, some who go to Pitt and others that don’t. It was so amazing to meet people from all different backgrounds and hear their experiences at their own colleges and see how they were different from mine. With the friends that I made that do go to Pitt I am so excited to get back to campus in the fall and see them again and be able to reflect on our time abroad. But now reflecting on my own I learned so much about myself, and the world around me. I learned that it is so important to tray new things and experience things that you may never get to again even if it is out of your comfort zone. There were so many times where we had no plans when we would travel somewhere new and we would have to ask for help or get creative which is something that I never experiences when it came to traveling. I also had the opportunity to better my time management while abroad. There is so many things to do in see, but I had to remember why I was there, to take classes and study hard in my classes. This was incredibly hard at times because of course I wanted to spend my time exploring somewhere or something new. I had to learn to prioritize both and do well in both which I believe I did.

Everything that I learned while abroad can be applies to my life back at Pitt from making relationships to navigating courses, so it’s quite hard to pick certain traits. But the one thing that I learned that will stick with me the most is that the world is so much bigger than just your own world and how much of an impact that each person makes on this larger world. I am so appreciative of this experience and how its changed me as a student and as a person. I will forever look back on this time abroad as some of the best 6 weeks of my life where I got to learn so much, meet some of my best friends, and become a better version of me.

Thank you to everyone that has made this possible!