Dear Donors, Mentors, and the University of Pittsburgh Community,
Hello everyone! I have officially been back in the States for just over a week, and honestly, it feels really nice to be back home. Being back in a familiar environment, sleeping in my own bed, and catching up with family has given me the breathing room to digest everything that transpired over my two months abroad. At the same time, I know that as the days turn into weeks and time passes, I am going to miss being in Europe more and more. I still keep in touch regularly with the great friends I made in Berlin, like Andy and Luis, and I truly miss them and the moments we shared.
Looking back at the entire experience, my summer in Berlin serving as a financial analyst intern for the Berlin Adler American Football Club was an absolute roller coaster. It was filled with major ups and downs, intense learning curves, and a massive amount of personal growth and self-reflection. I am writing this letter to express my deepest gratitude for your support and to share how this opportunity transformed me as a student, a professional, and an aspiring sports executive.
When evaluating the internship itself, the technical work portion of my experience was actually the easiest part for me. Going into the Berlin Adler front office, I had total confidence in my work ethic, financial coursework, and quantitative discipline. I knew that no matter what project was thrown my way, I would execute it well and get it done on time.
What proved to be far more difficult was finding personal comfort in a city whose baseline vibe felt so different from who I am as a person. Coming from an environment where high energy, outgoing social interactions, and casual warmth are the norm, landing in a fast-paced European metropolis where people are famously direct, reserved, and unbothered was a real shock to my system. Early on, feeling like an outsider in a city that does not go out of its way to welcome you was tough.
Personally, though, that cultural friction is where I grew the most. I learned how to break through the first shell, adapt my communication style, and connect on a genuine level with Berliners, people who are often stereotyped as cold or unfriendly, but who are actually deeply authentic and loyal once you learn how to meet them where they are. Whether it was connecting with locals on the pickup basketball courts or sharing meals with friends, I learned how to build a genuine community from scratch in an unfamiliar environment.
Beyond personal adaptability, this scholarship allowed me to sharp-focus my academic interests and elevate my professional toolkit. Outside of my daily responsibilities with the team, I dedicated a significant portion of my free time to personal financial research. I dove deep into individual investment options, analyzing equities, stock valuations, and broader wealth management strategies to complement my Finance and Economics coursework at Pitt.
At the professional level, this internship served as an intensive practical bootcamp. My proficiency in Microsoft Excel accelerated tremendously. I moved from basic data entry to reading complex financial statements and parsing through massive CSV files of raw bank transactions. By cleaning, categorizing, and auditing these financial datasets, I built actionable expense-tracking models that helped the Adler organization clearly identify spending habits and discover concrete ways to optimize their operational expenses moving forward. Furthermore, adapting to my supervisor’s high-autonomy, low-context management style taught me how to “manage up” by delivering direct, high-value data with zero fluff.
What I overall takeaway from this experience is that no matter how difficult, unfamiliar, or uncomfortable I may be in a setting, I will always find my way and my people.
As I step into my senior year at the University of Pittsburgh, I am returning with a much higher level of professional execution, technical mastery, and global business competency. Whether I am leading discussions in my upper-level finance seminars, serving as President of the club basketball team, or preparing for post-grad opportunities in corporate finance and banking, the self-reliance I developed in Berlin will guide my work ethic. Looking long-term toward my goal of operating in an NBA front office, learning how to navigate cross-cultural communication gaps and handle unstructured, ambiguous financial environments is a capability that will serve me for the rest of my career.
Thank you once again to my generous donors, mentors, and professors for investing in my education and making this life-changing experience possible. Your support not only funded a summer internship but also provided a major stepping-stone for my personal and professional future.
Hail to Pitt!
Sincerely,
A Grateful Pitt Business Student