Now that my Plus3 trip has come to an end I must now reflect on what I learned both professionally and educationally during the trip so as to increase my understanding of functioning as a successful engineer in the modern landscape, both local and global. By visiting many business and local institutions on the trip…
Tag: Conrad Gargani
Plus3 Korea 5/21/25
Today we left in the morning to go to the oil tank culture park, which entailed taking a few different buses to the area near the Seoul World Cup stadium. Once we got to the park though we found out it had recently been bought out by a private company and was closed for renovations,…
Plus3 Korea 5/20/25
Today we had a chartered bus scheduled to take us to the DMZ, Demilitarized Zone, since it’s a fair distance away from our hotel. On the drive there as, we got more and more north we drove past a few places where North Korea was visible in the distance which really drove home how close…
Plus3 Korea 5/19/25
To start off the day today we headed north to Camp Casey, which is an American Military installation in Korea. When we arrived we had to have our passports checked for security clearance before we entered the base. Our guides were Grace and William, both former Pitt students so that was a nice connection to…
Plus3 Korea 5/18/25
Today we had a late start so before our planned activities I went to a french bakery to grab an early lunch, I enjoyed some delicious croissants and juice. After my lunch I went back to the hotel so we could head out to Namsan tower. We had to take a special bus to reach…
Plus3 Korea 5/17/25
The first thing we did today was head to Bukchon Village, this is a traditional housing village that was preserved by a Korean businessman during the Japanese occupation. This makes it a portal back to what life used to look like for Koreans before the wars and technological revolutions. When we were walking around we…
Plus3 Korea 5/16/25
Today we went to Yonsei University to tour the grounds and an alumni’s lab. We went to the Sinchon campus which is the oldest of the three Yonsei campuses. It was where the founder Horace Grant Underwood began the missionary school to further the education of Koreans. When we arrived at the university we went…
Plus3 Korea 5/15/25
The First activity we did today was a taekwondo lesson. When we arrived we changed into the uniforms, it was a bit hard since the changing room was quite small. At the start of the lesson we were taught the meaning of taekwondo; tae means foot, kwon means fist, and do means mind. These form…
Plus3 South Korea 5/14/25
Our First stop of the day was Hyundai’s Asan manufacturing plant. Since it was quite a far drive we had to leave the hotel very early. This meant we had to get breakfast elsewhere, so we got sandwich boxes to eat on the bus. I really enjoyed the fruits and nuts they came with. Once…
Plus3 South Korea 5/12/25
We started off the day by heading to Suwon and visiting the Hwaseong Fortress. We went to the east gate and viewed the battlements and learned about how the armies used them as defensive points during sieges. Then we walked along a stretch of the walls which helped give a sense of scale to the…
Plus3 South Korea 5/13/25
Today we visited two companies: HY Fredit and TK elevators. The first company we visited was HY credit, they produce many food products with the most famous one being Yakult yogurt drink. We were shown the manufacturing process for the Yakult drink from mixing the ingredients together to packaging and delivery. They also talked about…
Plus3 South Korea 5/11/25
Today marks the first day of my journey in South Korea with the Plus3 program. The first hurdle was the flights to get here. We had some trouble with our first flight being delayed by an hour leading to a very tight connection in Atlanta. Luckily, we were able to reach our gate in time…
Introduction to Conrad Gargani
My name is Conrad Gargani, and I am a freshman Electrical Engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh. I’ve lived in the greater Pittsburgh area for 7 years now, and it’s been my favorite place in the world so far. I come from a family of engineers, both my parents and all three of my…