Greetings from Cyprus! Well, not quite yet. My name is Leo Ladik, and I am ecstatic to be shortly embarking on a unique journey through professional development and cultural exposure— and of course, through the island nation of Cyprus. I am a nineteen-year-old Pitt student who just completed his Freshman year in the Swanson School of Engineering. I have a deep interest in chemistry and physics that spawned from phenomenal high school teachers, experience in various STEM extracurriculars, and an early push towards the sciences from both my parents. Even though my academic interests also spanned from government policy and history to music, my science classes always stood out to me; most of all, my AP Chemistry class pushed me to into pursuing materials science. Professionally, I aspire to do hands on work, running tests and experiments in a lab to procure a desired goal. Whether I end up in the industry or in further academia following my graduation from Swanson in still unknown to me, but I intend to commit to whichever it may be with integrity, expertise, and persistence.
I had been looking forward to this program, Plus3 Engineering, since before I even committed to Pitt. When I was initially touring Swanson, hearing about the opportunity for a quick “May-mester” abroad following the first year of school was too alluring to pass up. When it became time to apply for the program this year, I had little to no background information about this Mediterranean island. However, something about its central location between Southern Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and Northern Africa made the island seem like the most culturally stimulating experience for me. My maternal family comes from Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean instead of the Mediterranean, while my paternal family has nearly entirely Italian heritage— with additional roots in Turkey (my last name, Ladik, is Turkish, despite my genetic makeup being almost entirely Puerto Rican and Italian). So, despite knowing nothing about it, I quickly became interested in letting this beautiful island facilitate my academic, professional, and cultural experiences for Plus3. I really hope to gain skills for how to interact with and extract as much value from a professional meeting as possible while on this trip. We will be meeting with a lot of companies throughout the two weeks, and I need to learn how to maximize each individual experience so that I can keep exercising this skill when meeting future companies outside this trip. While the professional aspect of this trip is arguably most important, I am equally excited to discover as much as possible from the cultural aspect of this experience. Cyprus will be nothing like any country I have seen before due to its complex geographic and ethnic influences, so I expect to learn lots about another side of our interconnected, multinational world. I can’t wait to start the trip, and gain unforgettable, invaluable experiences that I can take with me for the rest of my life.