Hello fellow travelers,

My name is Matthew Hay, and this May I will be traveling to Ecuador on Pitt’s Plus Three Program. I’m a freshman Finance and Politics Major from Philadelphia. I’m also in the Fredricks Honors College and a member of multiple clubs like Panther Equity, Pitt Sports Business Association, the Athletics committee chair for Student Body Government, and a member of the professional fraternity Delta Sigma Pi, and the social fraternity Theta Chi. I’m the oldest of two siblings, and in my free time love to play soccer, run my landscaping business, or play my guitar. I’m a huge country music fan and love to hang out with my friends and girlfriend.

I chose Ecuador as my Plus 3 location because I am a very adventurous person and am also a lover of chocolate, so this location naturally stuck out to me. I have always loved the outdoors, hiking, and am an animal lover. Growing up, my grandfather always wanted to go to Ecuador and would talk about it frequently, so I’m familiar with its culture and with the natural landscape of the country, but I am eager to experience it hands-on. I’m super excited to get boots on the ground and to be able to explore the natural habitat, like the volcanoes, plants, and the Amazon rainforest. It’s always been a dream of mine to see the Amazon, and now I’ll have a chance to experience it and be fully immersed in the river, canoeing down it. I’m also a big foodie, so I’m curious to see the chocolate factories and talk with the makers to see their process and how they are adapting to the changing climate, and resource destruction in the country, and to work with them hands-on to find a solution.

In these two weeks, I hope to get completely out of my comfort zone and say yes to everything. I’m a big traveler but have never had this much freedom to travel how I want to, so I hope to push myself to explore and experience as much of this culture as I can. I also want to work on my professional skills, navigating Spanish, negotiating in the marketplace, and working on real-world problems that affect these people’s lives daily. This really will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, which I plan to take advantage of and have it shape my professional life and how to carry myself in the future, thinking of things bigger than myself, and working alongside my team. With just a few weeks away, I cant wait to start packing, grab my bug spray, and hop on my flight to the jungle. I’ll keep you all posted, and to quote one of my favorite Pixar movies:” Adventure is out there,” and I can’t wait to find it.