From Friday, 11/13, to Sunday, 11/15, the senior, junior, and sophomore PLA classes traveled to Pittsburgh for the Fall 2015 trip. Every guest speaker and stop along the way, from the Penn State New Kensington campus to the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, provided me with new insight into leadership and life in general. Below, I will summarize and share my impressions of what I learned along the way.

Friday, 11/13/15:

The first stop on the Fall 2015 trip was Penn State New Kensington—my first experience visiting a Penn State commonwealth campus. After a tour of the campus by the Lion Ambassador tour guides and lunch, we were welcomed by Dr. Kevin Snider, the Chancellor of the campus. The Chancellor began his presentation by sharing his journey to becoming the Chancellor, and how unorthodox is path was compared to the one most people follow. One of the biggest lessons he had to share with us was the impact Penn State’s branch campuses have on their communities around the state. When the Chancellor first arrived, the campus facilities were out of date and largely inadequate. Because of this, students would just go home after class, and thus miss out on getting the full college experience of hanging out around the campus and studying with their peers. After his arrival, the Chancellor revamped the entire campus, investing significant amounts of time and money in promoting the campus as a home rather than just a college. He also began to reach out to members of the community as a way to increase their opportunities to access a great education. In conclusion, although some at Penn State’s University Park campus often look down upon students from branch campuses and may not consider them as being equally intelligent, I’ve realized that there’s a lot more to the commonwealth campuses than meets the eye. It’s easy to think that the students who don’t attend University Park are not as smart or bright, but many people don’t realize the tremendous financial hurdles they may have had to overcome in even attaining an education.

After leaving Penn State New Kensington, we arrived in beautiful downtown Pittsburgh and were welcomed to the city by Mayor William Peduto. The mayor opened his talk by speaking on his personal background and how he came to become the mayor. After his first failed attempt in running, Mr. Peduto took a break and using his position as a member of the city council, began working on initiatives (specifically environmental ones) to better the city. Through this, he was able to earn the support of his constituents and become mayor in his second election. Another interesting point Mayor Peduto brought up was the power mayors have in influencing the world. For example, he spoke of a conference he recently attended with mayors from across the world. He imagined the action that would have resulted had all the mayors at the conference decided, in unison, to increase the number of refugees entering their city. I’m positive that this type of action would greatly reduce the entire global refugee crisis. Personally, I’ve never before given much thought to the role mayors of cities play in their country and the world. I’ve always glossed over their immense influence, and so I was glad that Mayor Peduto shared his experience and get me to realize just how great of an impact mayors working collaboratively can have. He also talked a lot about a type of leadership that often goes unnoticed: the first follower.

To cap off an amazing first day, we visited Pittsburgh’s Google campus. Besides speaking with recent Penn State graduates who now work for Google (it just shows how Penn Staters are literally everywhere across the country), my favorite part of our visit was getting a tour of the Google office (although it should be called a playground, not an office). Never have I seen a more relaxed, enjoyable, and comfortable work environment than the one at Google. It was a huge departure from the cookie-cutter office space where the dress code is professional, everyone has strict deadlines to follow, and taking periodic breaks is highly frowned upon. With a full cargo net, band instruments, and a game room, I still cannot believe how any of the employees at Google Pittsburgh gets anything accomplished.

Saturday, 11/14/15:

On Saturday morning, we were graciously hosted by PLA alum Rishi at Deloitte LLP. At Deloitte, while sitting beside an amazing view of the Allegheny River and the Pittsburgh skyline, we participated in their Business Chemistry exercise. As someone who has previously taken multiple Myers-Briggs Type Indicator tests, it was refreshing to experience the personality questionnaire developed by Deloitte and its team of neuroscientists. In the past, I had always been skeptical of personality tests (I mean, how can my responses to a slew of questions even begin to describe something as complex and ever-changing as my personality?). However, I was glad that the facilitators at Deloitte took the time to explain the research that had gone into developing this test.

My results were: 44% Guardian, 37% Integrator, 13% Driver, and 6% Pioneer. Although I couldn’t believe it, I felt perfectly at home while sitting in the Guardian circle. All the ‘loves’ and ‘bugs’ we listed described me exactly, and it was a relief to see that another person from my policy project group was a Guardian as well. What also stood out to me was that I could guess which personality each group represented simply by looking at the manner in which they organized their lists. For example, the Drivers had a very disorganized and haphazard list, with words scribbled everywhere on the page, while the Guardians took a more structured approach and made two neat columns for each category. I am also curious to find out whether there are any other personality categories besides the four we worked with in the activity.

After lunch, we met with Mr. David Shribman, the Executive Editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In his compelling speech, he described the history of journalism and how it has progressed today, including how profitable the industry is today and how the media’s role has evolved in society. In my opinion, journalism and the media as a whole have become too polarized in their individual biases to carry out the purpose they were created for: to educate and inform the public about world events. Mr. Shribman also illustrated this point when he described the role of television, internet, and the entire field of digital media as providing quick and cursory details about an event (such as its time and place, and what parties were involved), while the role of print media is to provide greater contexts for events (such as the motivation for why it was carried out or a background of the parties involved). I personally believe that the role of journalists is to provide the facts for the audience so the audience can decide for themselves what to make of the information. This way, even the slightest biases on the reporters’ part will not cloud the conclusions reached by the viewer or the reader.

Following our visit to Deloitte, we drove to a very different neighborhood of Pittsburgh: Braddock. Whilst walking through the Braddock Carnegie Library, it was amazing to view all of the history the library contained, from the old bowling alley in the basement to the concert hall. I can only imagine the number of people who walked through the same halls as I did more than a hundred years ago. I also enjoyed the tour we took of Braddock and the metal jewelry shop we visited. In asking the owner of the shop about why she decided to open a business in an area as disadvantaged as Braddock, I learned that, although the risks exist, the community has really opened up to her and her husband as they’ve moved in. She mentioned that even the mayor of Braddock had come by their business to see if they needed anything or if they simply wanted someone to hang out with on the weekends. By having a mayor and a community that accepts outsiders with such open arms, it’s easy to see why the scene in Braddock is slowly beginning to change.

Something else that stood out to me during Saturday’s events (as pointed out by Alejandro) was the stark dichotomy between Deloitte, a company that caters to the needs of clients that make up the upper echelon of society, and Braddock, an area largely composed of members representing the lower echelon of society. I’m not sure whether this was a planned or unplanned feature of the day Saturday, but it was truly thought-provoking by having these two locations be juxtaposed on the same day.

The final speaker for Saturday was Brooks Broadhurst, the senior Vice President of Eat’n Park Hospitality Group. One of the main points that he made in his talk, one which resonated the most with me, was that being trained to do something is not the same thing has being prepared to do it. To me, being trained means learning the general pattern and procedure for carrying out a task, whereas being prepared means being able to adapt to a new situation. This lesson is very applicable to being a leader because it’s very easy for a leader to take what he/she learned in past leadership positions, and apply that same knowledge and those same techniques to all the other leadership positions he/she may enter thereafter. However, I believe it’s more beneficial (to both the leader’s growth and to the group’s progress) to approach leadership by being able to adapt and change leadership styles at a moment’s notice. As a leader, there are going to be many different situations, all involving different people and different circumstances, that I will have to face, and knowing how to adapt to the nuances of those diverse positions will help me tremendously. Additionally, I would like to thank Jake and others who asked Mr. Broadhurst difficult questions such as “what role should restaurants play in combating childhood obesity” and “how does Eat’n Park deal with food waste?” It’s very important to ask these difficult questions so we have an opportunity to hear the side of a story we don’t often get to hear, so I was glad to see those types of questions be asked of Mr. Broadhurst.

Sunday, 11/15/15:

On the final morning of the Pittsburgh trip, I had the amazing opportunity to visit the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville, PA. Our visit began with a brief talk by former Pennsylvania State Representative William Bastian. In his talk, Rep. Bastian recounted his experiences as a leader of the community on the day of 9/11. He also mentioned the importance of having young people participate in the political process in three main ways: (1) by registering and voting in any election possible, from national presidential elections to local school board elections, (2) by never turning down the chance to partake in jury duty, and (3) by running in elections, no matter their size.

Afterwards, we had a chance to hear Park Ranger Greg speak about the memorial and exactly what happened to Flight 93. Personally, he was one of the most enthusiastic and passionate speakers I have ever heard. He described in astonishing detail everything that led up to Flight 93’s crash, including what happened on the ground with the scrapyard workers and on the airplane. He also made it a point to emphasize that there wasn’t a single person who overpowered the terrorists and saved countless lives­­­—it was all of the passengers on the plane who together sacrificed their lives to save those of others.

Walking around the memorial and seeing the names etched into the rippled marble slabs inspired me to truly stop and think about what I’ve done in my life to this point, and how my actions would compare to those of the passengers aboard Flight 93. As Park Ranger Greg mentioned, the dash on one’s tombstone, the line stretching between one’s birth and death days, defines the legacy one leaves behind. For the past several hours, I have been mulling over how I have constructed and built my dash thus far. Have I truly lived my 19 (almost 20) years on this Earth the way in which I want to be remembered after I die? I honestly don’t believe so. Sure, I have done some positive work in my life, but it all pales in comparison to what the people aboard Flight 93 did. As I begin each day, I will be a bit more thankful for the life I have had thus far, and I pray that I will be able to leave this Earth in a better state when I die than the state I entered when I was born.

Overall, this Pittsburgh trip has been one of the highlights of my college experience so far. Not only did I have the chance to explore a wonderful city and speak with great individuals across multiple disciplines, but I also became much closer to my peers in PLA, both in my class and upperclassmen. These relationships and friendships are only going to get stronger, and I cannot wait until the next time when all the PLA classes convene together.