Our most sustainability-focused site visit yet, FoodCloud has done wonders for the Irish community. Primarily dealing with businesses as well as food banks, they are dedicated to eradicating food waste and distributing what would go to waste to those in need. Every time the company was brought up in our previous site visits, the businesses…

Rob Cullen’s talk this morning on networking was phenomenal, and I learned quite a bit about how to present myself as well as maximize networking opportunities. He particularly mentioned appealing to the person themselves, rather than the professional, and demonstrated by asking my colleague Nicholas his job but quickly shifting to his hobbies, favorite sports…

I highly enjoyed seeing the sheep farm as well as walking through Kilkenny. Kilkenny was a bit more rural and less developed than Galway, but was a great time nonetheless. Both cities contained dozens of clothing stores and restaurants, no doubt capitalizing on the numerous tourists milling about the streets. No matter how many sweater…

I had been looking forward to seeing the Cliffs of Moher this entire trip, and they did not disappoint. What I did not anticipate the day would contain was a self-guided tour of Barack Obama Plaza in Tipperary. Opened in 2014, a celebration of a US president’s partial Irish ancestry speaks to the incredible history…

In visiting the Guinness storehouse, it was truly enlightening to see how the business evolved and how much goes into crafting the famed “perfect pint.” One of the most surprising tidbits was a short section detailing the casks, better known as the barrels Guinness is stored in. To know if a barrel was sufficient to…

Having an entrepreneurial mindset, in my mind, is nearly synonymous with having the growth mindset mentioned in our Microsoft visit. Even lumping in the recipe versus ingredients example Dr. Kelly used, the desired traits of an employee from an Irish business has been vastly different than what my American upbringing has led me to believe…

In my time here so far, my opinion and view on Dublin as well as Ireland has changed vastly. I knew it was a hub of tech commerce, but I was under the impression it was a country with a rigid culture and an extensive history. In reviewing everything I have seen and heard, I…

Before visiting Microsoft, my limited understanding of how the company operated led me to believe only extremely tech-minded people with computer science backgrounds worked there. Within a few minutes of being inside the offices, this belief quickly dissipated. The Dublin offices are primarily business-focused instead of the actual software or hardware, and we heard from…

To begin, the most noticeable part of Ireland has been the weather. From what the locals have said, not too different from Pittsburgh! That is to say, take every sunny day for granted and never get caught without a raincoat. The area itself has been wonderful to explore so far! Being able to see such…