My STEP Signature Project included a study abroad program with travel to the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden called the Sustainable Business Global Lab. The Sustainable Business Global Lab allowed me to meet with business professionals and learn about sustainable practices. During this program, I visited many companies including Siemens, Atlas Copco, and KPMG.

While completing this project, I noticed many changes in the way that I viewed that way business works internationally. This trip allowed me to interact with companies and business professionals seeing how they work within their offices. I think that this changed over the course of the trip because I was able to see how different size, product type, and service companies are run. This broaden my knowledge of corporate structures around that world and different cultural differences.

These interactions helped me better understand myself as well. Since I was placed in boardrooms and interactive sessions with so many different people, I learned a lot about how I work within teams. I know this will help me in the future in my courses as well as in future work. My view of the world has also changed as a result of this trip. I was able to travel to three countries in the northernmost part of Europe. This exposed me to how business is run there and how that differs from America.

In my project, each day was filled with business visits, networking opportunities, and cultural experiences. All of these parts, led me to a transformative experience during the Sustainable Business Global Lab. This affected me by creating an environment for me to open up and meet many new people. I was able to meet many business professional within numerous industries, but also meet many OSU students that I can connect with back on campus.

In addition to meeting new people, each day I was pushed outside of my comfort zone. I was motivated to ask questions in a professional setting and found the confidence to offer opinions and insight. I think this will be very beneficial to my future and I hope to continue that in the future. This was also the first time were I felt that those giving the presentation were equally excited to hear what we had to say about their business models when relating to sustainability. It gave me hope for the job market in the sustainability field once I graduate.

I was very inspired by the larger companies that we travelled to. We had the opportunity to travel to KPMG, Siemens, Akzonobel, and Atlas Copco. These are global companies that have extremely complex supply chains with a large carbon footprint. Going to see these companies and hear about how they are specifically adjusting and adapting to climate change changed my view of them. Initially I though that these companies were only interested in profit. However, these presentation allowed me to see a different side of them and see what they are putting into practice.

These changes and experiences were very valuable for my life because there were within the industry that I want to go into. This helps me narrow down what I want to do professionally after school since I was able to see so many different companies. For the future, the experience will help me connect and network with the companies that I visited, while also, not being afraid to network with new ones.

Personally, I was able to travel to three countries that I have always wanted to go to. In our time outside of the business visits, I was able to explore four cities trying different food and exploring museums. In the future, I hope to do much more travel in these countries again and also travel to other cities in Europe.