My name is Audrey Ferdinand, and I am an over-employed college student with a curiosity for life and learning, many hobbies, and a PhD-level ability to procrastinate. I attend the University of Pittsburgh and am pursuing an Honors Degree from the Frederick Honors College and a major in Economics-Statistics with a minor in Studio Arts from the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences. Throughout my time in college, I pursued leadership roles in many organizations and employment opportunities. My school life takes a large percentage of my identity because without the experiences I undertook at Pitt, I would not be who I am now.

My academic journey closely ties to my professional pursuits and personal goals. While I am unsure of the career path I want to take, I know that I require myself to choose a job where I have an impact on others. My choice to study Economics and Statistics keeps the range of employment opportunities broad while also satisfying my love for analytical problem solving. Over the course of the past (almost) three years, I realized that I don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. The sole reason I added statistics into my curriculum was because it’s the first class I ever earned a B-range grade in in my life. I seek challenge in my academics and prioritize a well-rounded, deep knowledge of multiple concepts. Combining this with my passion for art and creative expression, I built a path for myself that allows me to use both halves of my brain in an interdisciplinary way.

The interdisciplinary nature of my time in college extends beyond the conventional classroom. After my freshman year, I studied Renaissance art history and oil painting in Florence, Italy for six weeks. In addition, I embarked on another study abroad experience after my sophomore year in Prague, Czechia learning about Gothic and banned literature for a month. Through these two opportunities, I discovered a love for the world and a seemingly insatiable desire to explore and integrate it into my life. I love immersing myself in new cultures and enjoy the chance to observe and interact with people different from me, especially when they don’t speak my language. To me, there is such a unique beauty in the feeling of the unknown when I encounter the written or spoken word I don’t understand.

Uncertainty, in general, is attractive in a way, but I also find it nerve-racking. The question of, “What do you want to do with your degree?” scares me because I truly have no idea. My studies interest me, but I find myself questioning what would fulfill me in the long-run. To attempt to make sense of what I want, I plunged head-first into the world of part-time jobs and internships. At Pitt, I am triple employed and have a fourth job in a restaurant in Downtown Pittsburgh. I value independence and have a tough time asking for help in terms of finances. I work as a Resident Assistant (RA), Harvey S. Cohen Fellow for the Economics Department, and Dietrich School Ambassador. Despite the burden I put on myself, these jobs have shaped me into the person I am today, especially being an RA. I feel grateful for the ability to have an impact on others’ college experience while also being able to learn from students younger than me. Furthermore, I have a pool of knowledge I can share with them through my other jobs and random stories from my choices I’ve made in college. My other part-time jobs allow me to explore my curiosities, such as research and public speaking, while also expanding my proficiency in transferrable and technical skills. Moreover, I utilize my previous and future internships to discover different career paths. Last summer, I interned at the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning and worked in public policy under one of my mentors, the Economic Opportunity Planner. For the summer of 2026, I will intern at PNC in their Corporate & Institutional Banking sector doing Treasury Management.

Despite all I put on my plate, I am a talented procrastinator. Yes, I go down YouTube rabbit-holes and waste time on my phone, but I am actively engaging in my hobbies as well. One of my personal goals is to procrastinate with style: instead of doom-scrolling, I should do something I love. Besides working out five to six days a week, I adore playing the piano, doing anything art-related (right now, I am experimenting with watercolors), and reading (currently reading Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal). However, even when I shouldn’t, I choose “fun” over mundane and necessary too many times because I struggle with keeping a consistent routine (with the exception of my fitness). I adapt well to my mistakes and can push myself with little time until a deadline. The only objectives I immediately get a jump-start on are new opportunities, which then stress me out because I leave no room in my schedule for my previous commitments and well-being (e.g. lack of sleep).

And so, I took a long-winded path to introduce myself and my “why” for choosing the program I will reflect on in the next couple of months: Global Service Learning: Bolivia (GSL Bolivia). Because of my curiosity to explore the world and immerse myself in different cultures, commitment to interdisciplinary learning and having an impact, uncertainty for my future career, and excitement for new opportunities, I wanted to challenge myself with something I’ve never done before. GSL Bolivia provides me the chance to do real, impactful work with non-profit consulting for an organization that exists for the betterment of the future of Bolivia: the children. Throughout the semester, my teammates and I will consult for CEOLI, which provides education to low-income children and young adults with disabilities so that they can be independent and autonomous. We get many life-changing experiences, but too few are the times that we involve ourselves in something that also changes our world-view. In addition to the insights I wanted above, I seek just that. Working with a mission-driven organization in a beautiful country with beautiful people to improve its future is a privilege, and I would regret graduating college if I chose to ignore the program despite having knowledge of it. Thus, an all-encompassing goal I vow to work towards is to just do it! Whether it’s in my career, personal life, or academics, I can’t procrastinate and wait for the opportunity to come; instead, I should try that cool thing I saw! I want to build a wealth of life experiences that test how I see the world and shape me into an educated, well-rounded, and ever-growing individual.