¡Hola! My name is Adriana, and a few weeks ago I finished my junior year at the University of Pittsburgh. I am majoring in marketing and pursuing certificates in business analytics, leadership and ethics, and innovation and entrepreneurship. After studying Spanish throughout high school, I thought it would be fun to start studying another language, leading to me starting a Hindi minor my sophomore year. It has been a whirlwind of preparation between unpacking the items from my dorm and repacking for this trip. While at home, I took advantage of the chance for some extra practice with Spanish. Many late nights were spent with my cousin watching old novelas, and during the day I made slow but steady progress on a Spanish horror book that I bought a few months back.
To prepare for aspects outside the language, I bought a map of Spain and took myself on virtual walks through the streets to start familiarizing myself with different routes. As a person with a poor sense of direction, I find some preparation ahead of time to be very helpful. Navigating the different forms of public transportation will likely pose its own challenges, but I am excited to engage in the inevitable trial and error. While it may be intimidating, public transportation opens up many doors when it comes to exploring a new area. This is one of the things that I love about Pittsburgh, and I’m sure it will be just as great in Madrid. If anything, there are even more transportation methods for me to explore. I am excited to see what my time abroad will hold.
The past two years I have been focusing on my Hindi studies as I work toward the Hindi minor, but this has led to me slightly neglecting my Spanish. While consuming different Spanish media is helpful, I believe that full immersion is the best method for securing fluency. After seeing that the International Internship Program provided the chance to not only work in Madrid but also live with a host family, I knew that I wanted to apply. Solidifying fluency in Spanish will contribute to my long-term goal of becoming multilingual as well as increase my comfort in communicating with Spanish-speaking family members.
This past week, I received my internship placement, and I was very happy to see what the people at EUSA (the company placing us in our internships and organizing our excursions in Madrid) were able to find. Right now I have received a provisional placement at Fundación Esperanza y Alegría – which translates to Hope and Happiness Foundation. This organization focuses on providing a variety of humanitarian services to the areas it serves. It has built schools, orphanages, and wells for different communities. Efforts are primarily focused in Madrid and India, which incorporates both of the languages I have been studying. I will be working on the organization’s social media and assisting with fundraising. I am interested in how communication works both within and outside a company that works internationally, and I look forward to adding what I learn to my current studies in marketing. When thinking about what I wanted to do in the future, I have always known that I want work that has a strong impact on the community. Funding and conveying an organization’s purpose are crucial in the nonprofit sector, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to work in a company that will help me build those skills.
This internship in Madrid will officially mark my third experience abroad with the University of Pittsburgh. While this has made things easier in some ways (I am comfortable packing and already had a power adaptor), I also know how many unexpected things can occur during a trip. My time in Puerto Rico posed its own challenges with getting sick and navigating. That being said, those experiences have made me confident in my ability to adapt. I keep reminding myself that I need to be forgiving with my Spanish-speaking skills. I will make many mistakes and encounter obstacles, but this will lead to rapid growth. In addition, the largest amount of time I have spent abroad has been two weeks, so eight weeks will probably require some adjusting, especially since I will not be speaking English the vast majority of the time. On the other hand, eight weeks is not long for an internship, so I will need to work hard to ensure that I have a tangible impact during my limited time there.
I have been slowly counting down the days to my flight, and I can hardly believe that tomorrow I will be in Europe for the first time, trying the food and meeting my host family. I can’t wait!