Our final day in Ireland was spent giving our presentations to the town of Carrigart. I found this experience to be quite interesting because it combined all of the research we had done in Pittsburgh with the hands-on experiences that we had in Ireland. Furthemore it was also quite nerveracking because we were presenting to a small town in a foreign country and we had to make sure that all of our recommendations were tailored to the towns atmosphere and that they were attainable while still making sure we did not upset anyone because that would be the opposite of our goal. Once we delivered the presentations I thought that everything went well because all of the groups projects went together and there was positive feedback from Erin and Brandon and they thought that a good amount of our ideas were attainable. I feel like being the finance and business development group came with challenges that we different from the other two groups because we were not as focused on social media and online strategies, but how to make the town as a whole more money which provided to be a bit difficult because not very many small towns like Carrigart host crazy big events to pull in money and tourism so finding reasonable plans made the final presentations more difficult, but all in all the presentation part of the trip went well.
Looking back on the past month of the program, I feel that I have grown a lot from the experience. Academically, I was able to challenge myself in a way that I had not done before for global service learning. I was able to take what I learned in class and apply it directly to real-world problems, which made the material so much more meaningful. Working in a different culture forced me to think critically and solve problems in ways I never had before. It completely changed my perspective on global issues and improved my communication skills with people from different backgrounds especially since understanding irish acints provided difficult at times. The trip also made me more motivated to learn, because I saw how my studies could actually make a positive difference in the world even if it was just for the small town of Carrigart. personally though this trip has inspired me to travel more out of the country because it showed me know important it is to learn about others culture because it can teach you a lot not just academically but personally to. I also think that the experience of being on campus for a class before schools starts helped ease some of my nerves about starting college at a bigger university coming from a high school were I graduated with only 60 kids. Furthermore, the experience also showed me that when traveling it is super fun and enjoyable to try new experiences like the kayaking even when you don’t think you will like it because you only live once so why not try new things. All in all the trips was very enjoyable and provided great way for me to start college that is not forgettable.
