Bonjour!

Thank you so much for sharing this journey abroad with me. It has been so much fun to detail my experiences and look back on them with such a fond heart.

Reflecting back on my first post, I created three goals for myself before I ventured on a plane to Paris. The first was to gain a foundation of what architecture really is and learn some of the basic vocabulary that they use. The course was intended for students of the arts, so I thought this would be a unique challenge for myself as a business student. My second goal was to improve my French accent and overall proficiency in both speaking and understanding words when I am in a conversation. My third and final goal was to improve my problem-solving skills. An entirely new set of people, language, social setting, and academic environment, on top of being in a foreign country, seemed like the perfect place to learn hands-on how to solve any issue that comes my way.

I feel that I have surprised myself in how far I have come since the beginning of my study abroad experience. When I was creating these goals, they seemed unattainable and more like a dream than a reality. However, standing here today, I can say that I believe that I have achieved all three of these goals. As the course went on, I became familiar with terms used in the architecture world due to the fact that we were using them every day during our museum on-site excursions and in the assignments that followed. I also feel that since I was surrounded by French locals who did not know much English, my brain was forced to rely on my limited knowledge from years past. This allowed me to work on what I already knew, while also using context clues during conversations to decode what each word meant. I made sure to always try to answer or start a conversation in French before, inevitably, defaulting back to English to get the most out of each interaction that I had. As for my third goal, studying abroad has proven to be one of the best places to improve your problem-solving skills. I faced many challenges and unknown situations that ended up working out because I had grit and faith that I could get through them.

During my time abroad in Paris, I was able to work on several ‘soft’ skills through my classroom experience. I strengthened my communication skills to a great degree by participating in small group discussions, conversing with locals, and spending free time with students that I had never met before. Each person had a different story and a different background, which put into perspective how important it is to listen and understand rather than be the loudest in the room. I also became more adaptable by learning in a way that was entirely different from my norm while also being in a foreign environment. Adjusting to a different culture and teaching style was moderately difficult, but I found ways to overcome these burdens as I faced them. Overall, I believe that these skills will help me to become the best version of myself as a student at Pitt Business. Whether it be working on group projects, communicating with fellow classmates or professors, or adapting to new working environments and expectations, I am confident that I can apply the skills that I have derived from this experience to make the best out of any situation.

My time abroad has been nothing short of incredible. I am so happy that I was able to experience this during my college career and hope to visit Paris once again sometime soon!

Merci 🙂