Hi everybody!
It´s fun to be blogging again. My hunger for travel has only increased after my Pitt Plus3 experience in Ecuador this summer, and now I can’t wait to travel to Puerto Rico! My name is Alexa Sefing, and I am a sophomore currently majoring in Marketing, Global Management, and Supply Chain Management with a certificate in Sustainability. I am someone excited by passion projects, energized by problem solving, and drawn to leadership. I am in love with consulting after diving head-first into it last year with the Pitt Management Consulting Club while consulting a tech startup through a market entry project. Now, I have just started an internship for We Are Beautiful Outreach, Inc as a Project Manager, and I am currently onboarding as a team member for the Saxbys in Hillman. In addition, I am getting a club off the ground as the Vice President of Cooking for Souls. Our vision is to help support local soup kitchens financially to provide access to dietary restrictive foods. Outside of school I LOVE baking a new treat every week, doing anything outside (when it’s warmer preferably), playing my ukulele, and watching shows alongside my friends. This semester is starting off on a busy foot for me, but not too busy to invest myself into this project!
When Rick pitched this program to me during our Ecuador trip, I knew immediately I would be signing up. This global service-learning opportunity checked every single one of my boxes. It offered a chance to be hands-on consulting a non-profit organization in another territory that’s focus was on sustainability. I would be consulting. Check. I would be able to work across cultures – not to mention, it would fulfill an abroad requirement for my major. Check, check. I have been actively building my Spanish proficiency for 5 years, and I would have a chance to practice surrounded by native speakers. Check. AND the non-profit I would be working with was working towards a cause close to my heart – sustainability. Check. It was as if the program was crafted just for me. I entered college with the overall goal to bring a globally and sustainably conscious perspective into business, and I truly believe this experience will help strengthen this perspective.
As my team and I have started working on this project in the past four weeks, I am invigorated by the scope of work we have agreed to accomplish. As students with minimal experience, limited time, and so many resources we don’t know how to begin, I can confidently say our team has taken this challenge head-on. We have already set up multiple meetings with mentors, designated weekly group meeting times outside of class, and developed a steady timeline that holds us accountable to our progress. I couldn’t be happier with the two girls I get to work alongside, and I really feel as though the work we do will benefit CARAS in the way they most need from us.