I’m Lorenzo Monteil. I’m writing this to fulfill my requirements as a participant of plus3 Vietnam. There isn’t much to introduce here, but to put it concisely:

Personally, I lived in LA(the city, not the state) most of my life, on standardized tests I fill out the “multiple ethnicities” bubble, I know enough Spanish to converse with native Spaniards, and outside of school, I like to run things from 5k’s to 800m to small businesses. I also have enough brothers that combined, we are one short of a full basketball team.

Academically, I’m studying Materials Science and Engineering in the Swanson School of Engineering. It probably has the most interesting dynamic of any department in engineering because, while we are the least populated (with a population of about twenty per class), we are attached to the much bigger mechanical engineering department. Which comes as an advantage in the form of having the same size budget as they do. The small population has also allowed me to spend any time I’m not studying in a research position where I explore additive manufacturing principles and binder-jet printing.

Professionally I’m the business manager for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and participate in other smaller organizations like Materials Advantage and the Filipino Student Association. Also, after Plus3 I will be participating in a summer research internship at Pitt for twelve weeks, working with the materials science department again.

I chose Vietnam because in the past I was able to explore entrepreneurship with a group of friends, and it was something I enjoyed. I believe that the knowledge and experience I can gain can help me eventually start my own business with knowledge of how international manufacturing works. I have had to deal with Chinese manufacturing before and it was mostly annoying and, in some senses, tedious. I believe that this trip can allow me to perhaps make personal connections for future ventures.

It’s always good to experience culture, but I’m not coming in with any expectations. If the DC movies have taught me anything, it’s that it can be easy for something to disappoint if you expected too much from it, so I believe it’s best to take each experience as it comes. I’m always excited to try new things, especially food. Vietnamese cuisine has always been a favourite of mine, so I’m looking forward to trying the “real deal.” It will be interesting to see how much, or how little, difference there is between the Pho place down the street from my house and the Pho we’ll have at the hotel.

Also, since we will be visiting university students, being of average to slightly below average height for guy, it will be nice to be taller than everyone for once. But in all honesty, I do feel like this trip will be a good learning experience in every aspect, allowing me to grow as a person and be a better student because of it.