Hi everyone, my name is Catherine Resetar! I was born and raised in Buffalo, New York which is about three hours away from Pitt. I have loved exploring the city of Pittsburgh so far and I am excited for the next three years here! I just finished my freshman year in the Business School. I am pursuing majors in Finance and Accounting with a minor in Economics and I plan to take the CPA exam after graduating from Pitt. On campus I am in the Pitt Program Council, Phi Eta Sigma honors society, and the Women in Business Club.
I knew I wanted to study abroad at Pitt, but I did not think I would get the opportunity to do it freshman year, so I was very excited when I heard about the Plus 3 program. My program location is China. I chose China because I thought the smart phone industry would be interesting to study since smart phones are such a huge part of our lives. I also thought China would be a great location because it is somewhere I never thought I would have the opportunity to go. I do not have much international experience so I can not wait to see and learn about a new culture that’s very different from my own.
What I hope to get out of this program personally is a great experience seeing different parts of the world that I never thought I would get the chance to see. There are a lot of historical spots such as the Great Wall and the Terra-cotta Warriors that I am excited to see and learn more about while in China. Another thing I am hoping to learn more about while visiting the East China University of Science and Technology and the Central University of Finance and Economics, is what college is like for people my age in China by. It will also be interesting to work with Engineering majors and learn about supply chain since those are both things I have not had the chance to do yet here at Pitt. Professionally I hope to get some more real-world experience by getting out of the classroom and actually visiting companies. I think I will learn a lot from interacting with the employees of the companies we visit and asking questions. Another thing I am looking forward to is seeing the difference between manufacturing and other aspects of business between China and the US. At home I interned at a company that manufactures machines, so I am interested to see the difference between what I have learned from my experience there and comparing it to what I learn about the smart phone industry in China.
I am extremely excited to travel to Beijing, Xi’an, and Shanghai in a few weeks!