Rise, shine, and grind. Today was the day for our final presentations. However, at this point, after five company visits, we are experts in the automobile industry, thanks to all the inside learning we experienced throughout this past week. I woke up early to get my proper dose of caffeine to tackle the day. We headed to the University of Augsburg via streetcars after a quick breakfast that we used to prepare our speeches and make sure everything is ready to run smoothly. It was time for all of us to conduct a proper industry analysis on each of our companies and analyze them in-depth. Although it might not be the most thrilling thing to sit down for continuous hours, it was extremely interesting to hear the analysis of other companies since I was physically inside of them but did not analyze them myself. I’m incredibly proud of my peers for conducting all different analyses (both from an engineering and business perspective) and giving such a well-structured presentations about what the companies are doing and what they might do in the future as the market and industry get more complex each day.
This was the milestone that we have been looking to accomplish every morning and it was finally over. After the business part of the day was over, we started to discuss what our plan is for tomorrow since we have our own free day.
After leaving the University for the last time, we all headed for family dinner. By ”all” I truly mean all of us, the German students, American students, Pittsburgh professors, and German professors. It felt like we were a family and nothing else in the world could compare to those few hours. We watched the sunset as we enjoyed some authentic dinner (I obviously had to get the schnitzel for my last meal) and talked about our favorite parts of the trip. I’m not good with goodbyes and got a little emotional as I said bye to our German friends, especially when I hugged Korbinian Knoll (who organized our activities and visits to Augsburg) I’m beyond grateful to have spent an outstanding two weeks with such hard-working and extraordinary individuals.
