Hi everyone! My name is Kayla Pak and I’m a senior at Pitt Business studying Finance and Business Information Systems, with a minor in Korean, and a certificate in International Business. Outside of academics, I’m a Pitt Pathfinder (campus tour guide and student ambassador for prospective students, for those of you who don’t know), a member of professional business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi, and a Global Experiences Ambassador for the Pitt Business Global Experiences Office. In my free time, I like to travel, explore new foods, hike, and take hot yoga classes!
As you can see by my diverse academic background, I have a lot of interests and I would say that I consider myself an intellectually curious person. I grew up in a multicultural household, constantly surrounded by different cultures and viewpoints, and naturally became more curious about what else was out there in the world. In high school, I was the founder and president of our International Affinity student organization and in my senior year, I conducted an independent study on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and its impact on the culture at my high school.
When I came to Pitt, I knew I wanted to study abroad, so when I got the opportunity to participate in the first-year Plus3 program to the Netherlands, it was an absolute no-brainer for me to go. That was only the beginning of my study abroad journey at Pitt. I went on to participate in the Global Business Institute: London program in the summer between my sophomore and junior year, where I did a part-time analytics and marketing internship at a small digital marketing agency. I can confidently say that studying abroad was the highlight of my college experience and I wasn’t quite ready to let go of it. This led me to my final study abroad endeavor at Pitt, Global Service Learning (GSL): Bolivia.
As I reflected on my college journey, I thought that there was no better way to spend my final semester at Pitt than to study abroad one last time. As a Global Experiences Ambassador, I was constantly selling programs like GSL to other students, but hadn’t really considered it for myself until one day, I thought about the study abroad programs that I done in the past and what was missing from those that I hoped to gain through a new study abroad experience. My previous global experiences were both in Europe, were conducted fully in English, and were all about what I could gain from it (site visits, internships, etc.), but I never really had the opportunity to give back or step drastically out of my comfort zone. GSL was the perfect fit for all of this. With GSL, I would be gaining hands-on experience with consulting with a group of students for a non-profit organization based in a non-English speaking country with non-English speaking clients. I wanted to develop myself in every way possible. That is, academically, professionally, and personally.
Academically, the class has a project based structure, which is much different than other classes I’ve taken at Pitt. With this, I hope to engage with the content more meaningfully and collaboratively with my group members. Professionally, I am eager to explore both the worlds of consulting and non-profit work as these are both areas I have had little exposure to in the past. Personally, I’m excited to grow my global mindset and challenge myself in ways I never have before.