Erica Love, Pitt in D.C.-Brussels Summer 2023
There are three main points I would share with someone planning to go on the Pitt in D.C.-Brussels program. The first is to make the most out of your time. The weekdays are quite busy and I know that my friends and I would always be so exhausted from our schedule; waking up early, having to be ready and professionally dressed, and being in lectures or on visits for hours at a time without a full break was super tiring. Despite this, students on this trip should still spend as much free time as possible exploring the areas around them, even on weekdays. Basically, I am saying push through the pain! The days are not all grueling, but it can be hard sometimes to muster the energy to go on little adventures yet it is imperative to take advantage of your free time.
The second piece of advice I would give is to not be afraid to network. I myself even could have tried even harder to do this because I am rather shy sometimes. But, so much of the trip is about hearing from industry professionals, and they are all friendly and eager to help us out. This means you can have a simple conversation with them and then perhaps network with them on Linkedin or keep in contact in some other fashion.
The third and final major piece of advice I’d give is to try to live like a local. Don’t get me wrong: sightseeing and visiting touristy places is a super big part of traveling to somewhere new and I would highly recommend experiencing many of these sites. With that said, don’t limit yourself to only visiting these touristy, super popular places. Especially while in Europe, I found that its worth it to travel a bit old-school and just go into a neighborhood or area where you don’t know anything and just kind of wander around, letting interesting-looking buildings guide you and stopping to eat and wherever you think looks good, not what an instagram influencer tells you is good. If you follow these three pieces of advice in particular, I think you would have a great and fulfilling time on this trip. Again, it is easy to stick with what you know, but I always go into something like this knowing I want to capitalize on my time and the opportunities that are presented to me as well as trying to be adventurous and experiencing new things.
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