Week four at Vireo is in the books! This week felt like my first normal week of work because I wasn’t traveling anywhere, and we didn’t have any events going on with the team. We also established some weekly goals at Vireo; I need to assign 12 companies to each of my team members every week, while also chipping away at some smaller projects I have on the side. Before creating these weekly goals, there was nothing to work toward. Because I had no goal to achieve, I felt like I didn’t have a lot of motivation to do the work I was assigned, however, after our deal flow meeting this week, I feel like I have a better understanding of our goals as a company and I can strive to reach my weekly goal so the team is successful. Personally, I like to have an objective, or else if someone feels like I’m working just to go through the motions, not to actually make an impact. I appreciated our meeting this week, and I look forward to the feedback I will receive this week. 

I realize that people who read this blog post, do not know much about me outside of my experiences in Germany. On Pitt’s campus, I am the president of my business fraternity Phi Chi Theta, and before that, I served two terms as fundraising officer. During this position I did a lot of events for our fraternity and even created our very first corporate sponsorship packet; I loved this position and the opportunities it gave me. I planned our first dodgeball tournament that included other business organizations on campus, and I plan to continue this collaborative tone throughout my presidency. Some of you may be wondering why I am discussing this; it’s because yesterday I joined in on a zoom for the Eastern Region National Meeting of Phi Chi Theta. Our fraternity was asked to give a presentation on member engagement because it is good in comparison to other chapters in the region. I was very nervous to say the least. I started creating the presentation on Wednesday and finished it Friday night (the presentation was on Saturday, I don’t know why I waited so long to get it done😭. In this presentation I gave an introduction about myself and why I wanted to join Phi Chi Theta. When I first arrived at Pitt I was actually in the arts and science school studying only Italian Language and I soon realized I wanted to incorporate business into my studies. I transferred into the Katz Business school in the second semester of my sophomore year and it was chaotic. The business school was so different from the arts and sciences school and I knew I wanted to join a campus organization that would guide me through this confusing time. I went to several events for different fraternities but Phi Chi Theta stood out to me because of their tight knit community. When I went to our events I saw that everyone was friends with one another, and I had some really great conversations with the brothers. I feel that joining phi chi theta was one of the best decisions I’ve made at college because there is always someone willing to lend a helping hand, to study, or to simply just hang out with. PCT is actually one of the biggest reasons I landed some of my internships next year. Our organization is truly amazing and I couldn’t ask to be surrounded by a better group of people. 

I was so happy that I was able to share my personal experience in Phi Chi Theta in the nationals meeting and the presentation went really well. In addition to speaking about my personal ties to Phi Chi Theta, I also got to share some of our most popular events from last semester like our dodge ball tournament and our head shot fundraiser. Overall, the presentation went way better than what I was expecting. After I finished, someone from Nationals complimented our chapter and my presentation; it was really nice to have some positive feedback about our chapter and about how I want to be as president. 

During my internship at Vireo, I have learned several soft skills like intercultural communication, problem solving, and adaptability. As discussed previously in a different blog post, my co-workers were not fully prepared to have me on their team. Because of this, there was a lot of miscommunications between themselves and me. In order to resolve this conflict, I asked clarifying questions that not only benefited myself, but also my co-workers to prepare them for future interns. When faced with information I may not know, I always try to find it myself before asking co-workers for help. I use this same strategy when faced with problems I may not know how to solve. It is important to have confidence in your problem-solving abilities, as this makes the job (and your future) easier for yourself and your colleagues. In terms of adaptability, I feel like this venture abroad experience is about being able to adapt to new situations and environments. Everything we are experiencing is new, and it is extremely valuable to have the ability to adapt to your surroundings and be confident in your abilities. In terms of hard skills, I am learning a lot of information about the energy sector. This may not be the most practical hard skill, however, I am very interested in this subject, so this internship is providing a great avenue to learn more about this sector.  I have also been improving my excel skills, which always comes in handy, in and outside the work place.