As our 2026 Global Service-Learning project is wrapping up, I am reflecting on the process as a whole and more specifically what in that process cultivated learning and growth professionally. From a knowledge standpoint, I went into this project with very little project management and grant writing experience, and with this being the basis of our project I needed to adapt quickly to properly complete the deliverable. While research was helpful and led our group to many resources that shaped our final deliverable into what it is now, ultimately the most useful resources came from “our network” as Pitt students. We had a meetings with the Assistant Director for Digital Operations at Pitt Derek McDonald and with Project Management Professor Anthony Rodi. Both meetings helped to direct us with what to do for project management and were essential to gaining templates and presentations that we would rework for our final training. On the grant writing side, a former GSL Trinidad student Ryan had gifted us the book “The Only Grant Writing Book You’ll Ever Need” which was more useful than general research in understanding grant writing. The lesson I learned was simply not to just research more but to use the resources that we had access to even if not immediately obvious. Another lesson learned came from the readings and discussions we had in class about ethical partnerships, that being the project deliverables do not necessarily spell the end of a partnership with Nature Seekers. Ryan was kind enough to go out of his way to provide us with materials he had received from a grant writing course he had previously taken. What I took from this is that if there is any sort of assistance I could provide in the future to the Trinidad GSL group that it is the unwritten “rule” to step-in for the benefit of both the relationship with Nature Seekers and the project deliverable itself.  

There were many transferable skills that a consulting project like this would develop for students; however, I think the situation the Trinidad group was put in throughout the project stressed the importance of adaptability. The beginning of our trip to Trinidad was halted with a flight cancelation in Houston. We had prepared most of our materials prior to leaving Pittsburgh, so our time in Houston was not as productive in working on our deliverables like it may have been after talking with Nature Seekers. The time in Houston only made us more grateful once in Trinidad for our experiences, however we were prompted with a presentation that we candidly had not known about beforehand. We luckily had the preparation needed to create a presentation on short notice and as a team we were working together very efficiently despite the time crunch. We were able to get a lot of feedback on how the interactive parts of our presentation were great and how the lecture part needed to be reworked entirely. Our deliverables also changed from a total of 12 hours for a training course to shortening our materials to a total of 4 hours for a training course. This meant that we had to adapt to the new scope of our project beyond the work we did in-country. I ultimately believe our group worked incredibly well, finding our strengths for what we can contribute even with the reworked scope.  

This project had a lot of moments where it was advantageous to be adaptable similar to the real workplace. Gaining knowledge in areas you lack it, embracing change with trying new approaches, and working with new groups of people are all realistic examples of adaptability. Working on this deliverable has taught this vital component of consulting work to not only myself but the rest of the Trinidad team.  

The University of Pittsburgh and Nature Seekers are a relatively newer relationship, at least compared to other Global Service-Learning programs offered here, however the connection between the staff at Nature Seekers and how they interact with Pitt (both staff and students) would have you believe that it is much longer. Originally Pitt had a previous partner for a Trinidad site, however over the pandemic Pitt pivoted to a new partner that we could assist their organizational needs in the context of Global Service-Learning much more effectively. Nature Seekers has a lot of trust in their community; however, they also gained the trust of Pitt and AllPeopleBeHappy staff with their directness and collaborative nature in finding a specific project that would be beneifical to their organization. The prime example from the past few years is how the Nature Seekers booking website was a previous GSL project and is still in use today.  

Regarding our project, our biggest strength for whatever we lacked in base knowledge we had done research to be sufficiently prepared in-country and able to work quickly with the changes in our deliverable. This led to an overall greater deliverable when finished, but we had to put in the work ourselves. When we started this project, only two of our five group members had any project management experience and none of us had any grant writing experience. This, along with our lack of general knowledge for Matura and how NGOs operate in Trinidad, was probably our biggest vulnerability that we addressed early on in our drafting of templates and other materials for Nature Seekers. By completing this project, we hope to continue this partnership that the previous groups, Pitt staff, and others have cultivated for us, and we especially want to strengthen this relationship with a functional deliverable that they will use to better their community and young leaders. 

The groundwork for how I would pitch this experience would be to separate Global Service-Learning from pure volunteerism, neither is inherently better than the other, but for a college program it makes more sense that there is an exchange of knowledge. As much as we are preparing to deliver these training resources to Nature Seekers, it ultimately has taught us many avenues of consulting and the topics that our deliverable is based upon. With volunteering you do not get the back and forth between the client like we have experienced. Because of this we were able to have a much larger impact on the organization Nature Seekers by continuing Pitt’s partnership with them while also directly seeking to address their community in Matura. With the resources we are providing their community members who step-up and are interested in attending courses centered around project management and grant writing could one day be using these skills to lead community projects that address their needs.  

If I had to give advice to future GSL students, it would be: 1. Communicate with the client as often as possible, especially at the start of working on the project to maintain clarity on deliverables between both the group of students and the administrators of your organizations. 2. Have fun in-country. These programs are not a spring-break vacation, but they are a new experience that students should be eager to enjoy every moment of, regardless of if moments were planned and expected or if you had to adapt. 3. Talk to everyone you can in-country. Looking back on my experience, that is the one thing I wish I had done more of while in Trinidad. I remember many conversations between Nature Seekers staff, AllPeopleBeHappy partners, and other people we had met, but I honestly just wish I had more than I did. Truly it is only a week and you only have so much time so I don’t think it could ever be enough, but those moments spent talking and connecting to others who have walked different paths than many in our country speaks volumes and will make your experience better. 

Personally I am very happy with how the whole experience played out and wouldn’t have changed a thing. Our deliverables are wrapping up and will soon hopefully be impacting Nature Seekers once they are put to use. I am grateful to the many people both before, in-country, and after that had looked after us and prepared us for these experiences and would urge anyone curious about a project like this to embrace it and apply.