Currently, I am abroad in Sydney, Australia doing the Pitt Business GBI. Here in Sydney, we are working with the abroad program, CEA Capa and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). The school is in a great location, about halfway between our housing and downtown, and it is right next to the central train station. We are all currently living in the Meriton in Zetland, which is a suburb of Sydney.
Our neighborhood is a lot more residential than other parts of the city, but it has a bunch of great food options, shopping, and is close to a lot of public transport. I have really been enjoying all the parks and little coffee shops in the neighborhood, it feels very comfortable and homey. I am adapting well to the new situation, it took a bit of time to get over the jetlag, but it is all better now. I live with three other students in our program, two of which go to Pitt and one who goes to Michigan State University. We all get along well and have been getting to get to know the city better and travel around together.
UTS is a bit different from Pitt, despite also being an urban campus. The UTS campus is a more spread out throughout the suburbs of Sydney and the buildings are a lot larger, but fewer in total. The student population is roughly the same, if not larger, and is a great environment to get to learn in. The classrooms are generally smaller than they are at Pitt, and the instructors and students are more connected. There is also a lot more in-class participation aspects to our learning.
While I am here, I am taking one class and doing a part time internship. For my class, I am taking sports management. The class is a lot more hands on and discussion based than a lot of my classes at Pitt have been in the past, and so far, I am enjoying both the class and the content. For my internship I am working with Hoops Capital in the marketing department, which is a company that oversees both the Sydney Kings and Sydney Flames, the profession men’s and women’s basketball teams in the area. The workplace environment here is a lot more laid back and there is more of a balance present between peoples work lives and personal lives. A couple key skills that I have noticed so far is strong communication skills, as well as general collaboration and teamwork. A lot of the work I have done thus far has been with others and is allowing me to explore different teamwork styles, communication styles, and more.
