I started the day with three main goals. First, I knew that we would be traveling to a chemical company which isn’t exactly where I want to be working when I’m older, but I wanted to soak up all the information and do my best to understand the chemical concepts that would be presented to us. Second, I wanted to ask questions and interact with both the people at Nouryon as well as with the alumni who we would be having dinner with at the end of the day. Finally, my last goal was to try to make connections with what I learned today and concepts that I learned this year at Pitt.

After breakfast at 7 and a quick hour-and-a-half bus ride, we arrived at the chemical company Nouryon. We started our visit with a presentation from Pitt alum Christina who works at the company. This then segwayed into a presentation by the site manager, which I found extremely interesting. This presentation helped me hit two of my goals, connecting to what I learned at Pitt and my goal to ask questions. The site manager talked about the chemical company’s patents briefly, and I was curious whether or not Nouryon’s process is similar to the patenting process for pharmaceutical companies that I had learned about in Panther Equity ( an investment club) at Pitt in the fall. I asked if lf like pharmaceutical companies, Nouryon had to capitalize on profits for the chemical compositions they patent before they go public, and the answer I got was much more interesting than I expected. Unlike pharmaceutical companies, Nouryon doesn’t patent the chemical compositions that they think will set them apart from their competition. Instead, they keep these formulas as a “trade secret” in order to not reveal the composition to their competitors and run the risk of them replicating it.

After the two presentations, we got to eat lunch before we set out on a more interactive walking tour of the site. This tour was my favorite part of the day as we got to see demonstrations of how Nouryon tests the safety of the chemicals they produce. In some of the demonstrations, there were explosions, large fires, and my favorite, a liquid substance that ignites on exposure to air. Overall I think I did a decent job understanding how all the chemical reactions work and why they are doing the testing that they are doing in the labs. Some of the more technical aspects flew over my head, but I am confident in checking my third and final goal of understanding the chemical concepts to the best of my ability.

We ended the day by eating some delicious hors d’oeuvres and Networking with some alumni. I was able to talk to a few alumni, one of the most interesting owned his ow venture capital firm in the Netherlands and talked about selling a couple of startups along his journey. This struck a chord with me as it’s exactly what I want to do in the future and it was fun to pick his brain a little and get some insight on how he got to where he is today. This visit also reminded me how important the networking aspect of business is and that connection is a big driver of success.

I believe I learned the most that I have on the entire trip today. I was able to achieve the three goals I started the day with, which I was proud of, and I came out of today with way more knowledge of what goes on in chemical labs than I ever thought I would have. I am looking forward to making more connections between what I learned at Pitt this year and what we are doing in the Netherlands.