Hello, my name is William Eddis. I am a rising junior at The University of Pittsburgh’s College of Business Administration and a am studying Supply Chain and Global Management here at Pitt! I’m originally from right outside of Philadelphia but love living in Pittsburgh most of the time now! Getting to learn the different parts of the city have been amazing and so far college has been some of the best years of my life, learning many things and getting to develop and further my career through experiences like the one I am about to partake in!

In my free time I really like to spend time with friends, play all sorts of games, and travel the world. Geography and Travel are some of my biggest hobbies and I was lucky enough to participate in the Plus 3 Cyprus program last year at Pitt. This experience was super eye opening for many reasons, first of all I got my first experience in Mediterranean culture eating plenty of new food and going to a place that the people primarily speak greek. The experience also introduced me to the Supply Chain industry, an industry I now intend on working in in my career. We were able to visit the sites of many different logistics companies all throughout Cyprus and learn how their day to day operations work. Overall this experience really changed the course of my college career and hopefully will lead me to success in the future.

I’ve worked summer jobs as a Counselor at a Day Camp, Coldstone Creamery, and Outback Steakhouse in the past and am looking forward to getting my first professional work experience this summer. This experience will be completely new to me for multiple different reasons, most obviously because I’ve never had a professional internship/job in my life before. All of these jobs have taught me to be patient with people, especially working at Coldstone where the line could be super long and customers anxiously waiting to be served as the whole experience of the restaurant wasn’t a quick as a normal ice cream place (if you’ve ever been to a Coldstone you know) dealing with unhappy customers is something I have a lot of experience in at this point which is a very important skill to have in life.

In addition, I will be working abroad in a country I’ve never been to before. I will be forced to learn the work culture in Sweden and get to know how things are done differently there. This experience will help me to compare during future jobs/internships and could prove invaluable. I am working in logistics at a company in Stockholm called Boulebar where I will be getting my first experience in the Supply Chain industry. Getting to work in logistics is going to be very fun as I am going to learn what its like to have a job in the industry and get a feel for what a typical day to day looks like. The following will be some of the responsibilities I will have this summer.

Supplier Article Data Collection: Gather information from venues about the supplier articles in
use.
Goal: Improve communication and logistics to better support the venues.

Supplier Research: Identify potential new suppliers.
Goal: Gain a thorough understanding of the supplier selection process.

Logistics Planning: Collaborate and assist to plan logistics across three countries.
Goal: Learn different operational approaches across regions.

Venue Visit: Visit several venues.
Goal: Understand how logistical work impacts venue operations

Having another experience to study abroad is something I wanted out of college. It was a huge consideration for me when finding where I want to go to school. I’m very fortunate that Pitt Business has a great global experience program and can simultaneously provide me with hands on work experience all while studying abroad. This experience is going to be very unique and could prove to be useful as I intend to work in the US as I will have the knowledge of how both industries in each respective country operate and use the most optimal strategies from each to further my future company.

Overall, I’m very much looking forward to participating in the International Internship Program this summer! I think it will be a great experience and will introduce me to logistics in a very unique way. I’m very thankful to Pitt Business and everyone who had a hand in helping me get into this program throughout the way. I’m very much looking forward to doing high quality work and having a great experience!