Hi! Or should I say, Guten Tag! My name is Sydney Sparks and I am a freshman in the College of Business Administration here at Pitt. I intend on majoring in Finance and possibly Business Information Systems or Data Analytics. I am from Long Island, New York, which is about 7 and a half hours from Pitt and a very long way from Germany. On-campus, I‘m involved in the Blue and Gold Society and the professional business fraternity, Phi Beta Lambda. A few things I enjoy doing in my free time are playing intramural basketball and lacrosse (Go Chix with Stix!), and training and coaching kids in basketball. I also must say that I watch a lot of youtube and spend way too much time on Tik Tok. 

I choose the Plus3 Germany program because I personally found the automobile industry quite interesting. German cars are a big part of the industry and I would never pass up the opportunity to visit BMW headquarters! Plus3 in general was a great opportunity to get to study abroad during my freshman year and dive into the perspectives and norms of other cultures. Having a diverse understanding of cultures all over the world makes you a well-rounded individual, and this is something I aspire to be by the end of my time at Pitt. I also chose this program because coming into my freshman year at Pitt, I was supposed to go to Ireland for the Haller Global Honors Fellowship, and because of Covid, the program went virtual and we had to work with an organization from the UK instead. Though it was a wonderful experience from the comfort of my Macbook at my home, I still had a great desire to actually leave the country and truly study abroad. 

There are a number of things I would like to accomplish during the duration of this program. For starters, I would love to broaden my palate, both literally and figuratively, considering I am quite the picky eater, but I can’t wait to try some German foods. But figuratively, I want to learn more about German/European culture and see how they operate compared to American culture. I want to also develop my communication and collaboration skills, by working with not only new students from Pitt, but also students from the University of Augsburg. I can be a tad bit reserved at times and I hope while working on projects in Germany, I hope to work towards being more confident and vocal whenever I can. Additionally, as a business student, I hope to learn more about how the European markets function. German cars are very popular in the US and I hope to dive deeper into the inner workings of sourcing and constructing these cars and materials.

I’m thrilled about this new adventure and can’t wait to share my future experiences with all of you! H2P!