The Brackenridge Fellowship has a wide range of individuals within its alumni network. I am interested in learning more about the Brackenridge alumni, David Leftwich, and his experience with technology and innovation. Technology has always been a passion of mine and I enjoy discussing new innovations within the field. Learning from other people’s career experience is a great way to not only grow your network, but also gain relevant information about their field.

During my time at Pitt, I had the opportunity to take Organizational Behavior and became interested in the course concepts such as effective leadership skills, organizational structures, and methods of worker empowerment. After taking the class, I had the opportunity to work as a grader and build my work relationship with my research mentor, Trevor Young-Hyman. Working with him during this fellowship has expanded my critical thinking skills and abilities to conduct research. The entire experience has been an excellent learning opportunity and I would urge other students to try research in any form that they can. My advice to students pursuing research opportunities is to find a course or topic that fascinates you, and use Pitt’s resources to learn more about it. Whether it’s going to guest lecturers or joining an academic club, finding other people who have similar interests can open new pathways for your career.

In my own career, I try to grow my network as much as I can to gain more information about possible career paths. It’s important to learn about different careers and gain a wider view of the available options. As I move through my career, I plan on exploring the opportunities from my network and building a diverse skill set. Discussing ideas with people outside of your field or industry provides new methods and perspectives of approaching a problem. I have enjoyed participating in the Brackenridge fellowship because it’s demonstrated how others effectively work on research through their own means. The different forms of research highlight the abilities of people sharing knowledge in unique ways. Observing how each person discusses and develops their research ideas has been a really great experience that I am grateful to have. I hope to carry this appreciation of others work into my own career, in order to continue to learn and grow as an individual. While I’ll never be able to learn the depth of every topic, I will always be captivated by someone explaining the broad strokes of a complex idea.