Recently I had the privilege to visit Rio Grande du Sol, Brazil. While there, me and four other Pitt students participated in a program called Moving the Cities. In the program, I was put into a group with four other students from all over the world. My group members consisted of Jan from Germany, Juan from Colombia, Coni from Chile, and Carol from Brazil. Our challenge was to find a solution to an issue revolving around global warming and health. After some brainstorming, we decided on trying to reduce nitrous oxide produced by fertilizer. There were some struggles within our group, however we tried to prevail and give the presentation our all. Winning wasn’t on the cusp of our minds, we just wanted to present our research and hard work to everyone else.
When we presented our findings in front of the other groups, it was clear our presentation stood out, but we didn’t know if it was in a good way or bad way. Our research was rather complex compared to the other groups, which made our presentation difficult to understand at points. We had no idea how our presentation would come across to the judges, but we were proud of our work regardless.
When it came time for awards, I was ready to celebrate whoever was a winner, because I figured our group was not one, but low and behold, our group was announced as third place! I was so proud of everyone, and I was glad that the judges enjoyed our presentation. Most importantly though, our third place victory felt more euphoric than first, because I was shocked we even made the top three. We were all so ecstatic, and that day, we really felt like third place was the new first.
