Hello everyone! My name is Melina Bradley, and I am a Pittsburgh native. I am a senior in my final semester at Pitt where I have been studying Human Resources Management and International Business. 

​​I was drawn to the Bolivia project because I have been fundraising for CEOLI for the last 3 years through Phi Beta Lambda. Throughout grade school, I had a buddy in the Best Buddies program, so I feel very aligned with the mission of CEOLI. 

In a past internship with PPG, I led a team of interns on a project with a local non-profit, Foster Love Project, to create a capital campaign, finance tool, and marketing campaign for them to use in the upcoming years. I enjoy working with non-profits, giving back to the community, and learning about new areas. My professional experience so far involves working with large Fortune 500 companies. I am interested in learning more about working with smaller organizations, especially community organizations so that I can build connections with these kinds of organizations in my future roles. Large corporations have a lot of resources that smaller organizations may not be able to afford or may not have access to. These larger corporations are always looking to support local organizations, and I would like to learn how to be the bridge to allow that connection to happen.

Having experience navigating diverse cultural perspectives will help me to understand employee behavior and foster inclusive workplace environments. I’m hoping that this course will enhance my ability to approach business challenges with a strategic mindset. It will help me to refine my problem-solving, communication, and client management skills—core competencies in HR consulting. By learning how to advise clients, analyze organizational needs, and implement tailored solutions, I will be better equipped to provide strategic HR support in my future career.

I have seen myself fall into the trap of thinking my behavior and cultural norms are the “default” and everyone else is “different”. The organizations I have interned with, PPG and Marriott, are very US-centric companies. Despite operating in all regions of the world, their processes, policies, and practices are based very much on what Americans feel comfortable with. I think a lot of this has to do with the ease of keeping things largely the same across the board, but I also think it is because we view what we are doing as the “best”. While it may be best for many people living in the US, it certainly will not be the best for everyone globally. I am interested in learning more about how organizations that operate on a smaller scale tailor their product/service offerings, policies, and other components of their business to reflect the location where they are based. An organization like CEOLI that is rooted in being part of the Cochabamba community certainly operates differently than the organizations that I am familiar with. I am interested in working with them to see if there’s anything that they are doing that I could bring back to one of these larger organizations to tailor the employee experience to align more with their national culture and workplace norms.