When I learned I was going to be traveling to the Netherlands through the Plus3 Program, I was curious to see how the trip would shape the direction of the massive personal and professional growth I have experienced in only a short year at the University of Pittsburgh. I have met so many new people and discover myself personally and academically at Pitt, but the ability to take this process international afforded an opportunity for growth and expanding my worldview that I could not ignore. I took initiative and had an extremely enriching time abroad, learning how sustainability can be applied to so many areas of everyday life (with Dutch society outlining how impactful infrastructure and lifestyle changes can be to climate change prevention.) Education outside of the classroom, clearly displayed through the trip’s focus on site visits and learning as a cohort through lived experience, needs to be focused to have the maximum effect, and I set out to have defined goals about how I was going to take in everything I saw and did on the trip. However, I could not predict how exactly the trip would shape my worldview, and I was surprised with how the trip gave me so much insight into not only Dutch culture, but also my place within the international professional community (and how this is relevant to my time at Pitt).

Before departure for the trip, I made it my goal to prepare myself as best as possible for a successful two weeks in the Netherlands. Specifically, I wanted to come back from the trip with a real sense of actually knowing the people I went on the trip with and to understand the way Dutch culture can be instructive to myself and the people around me regarding sustainability and everyday life. Cultural exchange can be extremely rewarding when you open yourself up to it, and I decided I would take the important steps to immerse myself in Dutch culture, trying as many new foods as possible, riding the local public transport, and speaking with the Dutch people I met about their experiences. I feel I achieved each of these goals I set pre-departure, and a prime example of each of these subject areas being met was actually an independent exploration of the city of Rotterdam I made with my fellow Plus3 member Umur. This experience focused on personal development, giving me a chance to independently explore a city and people I otherwise would not have gotten to see.

To start the day, me and Umur walked to the city’s marina, on our way passing through several Rotterdam neighborhoods. I was struck by the amount of high-density housing in the city, a stark contrast to the traditional American single-family home. Further, I saw a large amount of solar panels on said buildings, with almost every one of the large complexes having a large solar array. I find the commitment to sustainable housing efforts in the Netherlands both commendable and practical, as it definitely saves cost to implement renewable energy and dense housing in a country with an ongoing housing issue. We arrived at the Marina and had the chance to see several water taxi areas, another instance of Dutch public transit conforming to the city’s infrastructure and reducing emissions, and several pieces of Dutch art, once again showing how the cities in this country prop up their creatives. The amount of maritime history in Amsterdam and Rotterdam have struck me as someone who is not particularly near a coast back home, and I really love how this translates to large boatyards like the one we saw at the Marina today. After this, we had the chance to go to a cafe that only used biodegradable silverware and cups, showing how even at the street-level sustainability shapes Dutch life. Taking the steps to explore the city on our time, independent of the course content curated on the trip, made me feel really immersed in the Dutch way of life in a way that exactly met the personal goals I made pre-departure. Having the chance to be in a different country doing my own activities felt like a real growth moment to me, and this one experience is emblematic of the little moments

In a similar vein, I had a chance to grow professionally in the Netherlands during our visit to TU Delft, one of the most prestigious engineering schools in the world. Here, we had the chance to participate in the unique experience that was the Climate Frisk, a workshop that helped us understand how/why carbon is released into the atmosphere, the immediate and long-term effects of this process, and the potential solutions to rectify the fallout from climate change. I had the chance to work with my friends Ben and Desi, and we worked through the cards they gave us to help establish a cause-and-effect chain related to climate change. I feel that our different backgrounds academically, me in political science and economics and them in various types of engineering, helped a lot in the different ways we worked to solve and address the problems presented to us in trying to work through such a complicated process. Further, I found it really productive that they gave the chain’s components in steps, as this really forced us to build a hypothesis, argue and test this hypothesis against one another, and then deconstruct the faulty parts of our explanations once further parts of the cycle were introduced. I feel we articulated ourselves very well to our proctor, and in working through this activity I feel I have been reminded of the personal responsibility I have to reduce my carbon footprint. When we worked through the chain, we ended at key social issues like war and displacement of people, and I realized how deep of an impact my use of fossil fuels has on the rest of the planet around me. As we brainstormed solutions at the end, I put forward that we must work to stage political protests and lobby for our own interests to our governments, as our own health, well-being, and entire way of life is contingent on handling the climate change problems we face.

I feel that, as someone studying political science and economics, understanding the effects of climate change on the production cycles and industrial output of society is key to making informed and responsible policy decisions. Overall, I feel that these two examples give a strong insight into how, in numerous other instances and the ones described, I was able to reach my personal, namely getting to know the people on my trip and immersing myself in authentic Dutch experiences, and professional, specifically gaining real professional insight in connection with sustainability, goals. As I continue on my path as a student at Pitt, I feel the lessons I learned on this trip will prove invaluable, proving to myself and the people around me that I can meet the goals I set.