Ciao! My name is Nathaniel Mitrik and I am closing my freshman year at the University of Pittsburgh with the experience of a lifetime! I will be going to Italy, my dream international trip destination, this May for Plus3 Italy!
I am a Pittsburgh native, but have lived all around the United States. Places I used to call home include Pocatello Idaho, Slippery Rock Pennsylvania, and Charleston, West Virginia. My current home is Bridgeville Pennsylvania, about twenty minutes (depending on traffic) southwest of the city of Pittsburgh. Despite having lived in so many places across the country I have never left the United States! I am extremely excited for my first international experience to be this trip to Italy!
More about me personally. I have always had a heart for music, having played several instruments (Bassoon, Saxophone, Trumpet, and Didgeridoo) during my high school years, but have recently put that interest aside to focus on my major. I am an avid fan of the Ubisoft video game series Assassin’s Creed, who’s second and third installments took place in Renaissance Italy and sparked an early love of Italy and its history in me. I have recently developed a love for coffee, and I am extremely excited to experience the Italian culture surrounding it first-hand, and to try the many shops devoted to the cappuccino!
I am student in the Swanson School of Engineering Majoring in Bioengineering with a focus in Biomechanics. I also intend to Minor in Mechanical Engineering and use my degree to design advanced prosthetics. I would like to work internationally in the future, and I am looking forward to this trip being the first of many to take me out of the country.
So far, Plus3 Italy has already taught me a lot! My fellow students and I have been learning about supply chain management in the context of the fashion industry. Our focus has remained on the supply chains and fashion of Italy, because our destination, Milan, is the fashion capital of the world. While we are in Italy, we will also visit the cities of Venice and Verona, explore different locations important to Italian culture and history, and visit companies vital to the fashion industry of Italy and the world.
I am so excited for this trip as it will finally make my dream of going to Italy a reality, something I have desired for many years. I am excited to learn more about the supply chains that we have only been given a cursory introduction to as well as see them first hand. While fashion wasn’t a major interest of mine going into this trip, I have grown more interested its place in the world economy and its impacts on the environment. I have gained insight into the world of the supply chain and I have a better appreciation of what it takes for a finished product to be produced and shipped to me. I am interested to see how supply chains will continue to change with the further integration of the internet.
Two weeks and a plane flight can’t come fast enough.
L’Italia non è pronta per me!