Hey everybody! My name is John Lake but most of the time I go by Jack. I am from Morristown, New Jersey which is a ~45-minute drive from New York City. But here at Pitt, I am a freshman engineering (declared chemical engineering) major and I start my departmental classes in the fall. Fun fact, I actually applied to Pitt as a physics major at Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences and transferred to Swanson a few days before the deadline. Very glad I did too, Physics 2 is only getting worse.

I have 1 sibling back home, a younger sister named Ren. I also have a dog named Teddy who I miss every day and cannot wait to go back to in the time between this semester and the trip to Cyprus. In my free time, I either hang out with friends, watch a tv show, go bouldering, play a video game, or relax somewhere on campus. I grew up with all different kinds of music playing in my house and I can play 5+ instruments, so I absolutely love music but don’t really have any preferences. I’ll listen to just about anything.

I applied to Plus3 because growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey was fun, but not a lot happened throughout middle school and high school. Especially with COVID, I feel like I don’t have a great idea of how the world works outside of the US. I have left the Northeast a few times and been out of the country before, but it was so long ago I don’t remember my international trip to Ireland very well. Plus3 is mostly a cultural experience for me, but the academic and professional experience won’t hurt either. Because I would love to dive into any culture, I didn’t exactly care too much about where I ended up going.

I originally applied to their South Korea program which had the most interesting coursework in my opinion, and I wanted to get an authentic experience with Asian culture. Unfortunately, with COVID restrictions that trip wasn’t able to happen. I then signed up for the Netherlands, and when that got canceled as well I was placed in the Cyprus 2 group. Even though it wasn’t my first (or second) choice, I am so excited to go to Cyprus! I think the Mediterranean is a very cool region with a lot of interesting history, and researching Cyprus for the various assignments has only made me more excited. Also, I didn’t really know how much I would love supply chains, but I think tracing everything back to consumers and customers is not only interesting but fun too. It’s a cool challenge that I bet we will do more when we actually touch down in Larnaca.

All in all, I think this trip will not only be a lot of fun, but something I will look back on and reference for the rest of my life. This will be a life-changing experience. I will be a smarter and wiser person by the time I get back, and I can’t wait to go on this trip with all of you!