Thank You Peru and Panama !

As I prepare to board my plane back to Washington D.C., I cannot help but to reflect on the incredible experience I have had over the past ten days. Both Panama and Peru were both unbelievably beautiful countries with so much culture and offered great learning experiences.

Peru was full of fun, once-in-a-lifetime learning experiences that some could only dream of doing. While there, we were able to tour Alicorp, one of the largest consumer goods plants in Peru and APM terminals, Peru’s largest seaport. Being able to see the daily operations of a plant and port of such magnitude was an eye-opening experience. There is so much that goes into receiving the products that we use on a daily basis, and with automation those processes are becoming more and more efficient every day. We were also able to take a Peruvian cooking class (my favorite activity) and swim with sea lions at the Palomino Islands which were both extremely fun. All of these experiences were able to expand our global mindsets as well as push us outside of our comfort zones.

While in Panama we learned a lot about the Panama Canal and the role it plays in connecting different countries around the world to each other. The Panama Canal plays such a crucial role in getting cargo from one side of the world to the other. It significantly reduced the amount of time and distance to get from the Atlantic to Pacific oceans and vice versa. Just in the past year alone (2019), over 252 million long tons of cargo passed through the Panama Canal. We were also able to tour the Red Cross Humanitarian Logistics center in Panama which serves as the main hub for all of the Americas. In the case that there is a national disaster or major emergency, this is the hub that provides the necessary items to that area. Red Cross is such an incredible organization and I truly loved being able to see how my major and future field can be used to help those in need.

Overall, I really enjoyed and cherished every moment of this experience. While I only mentioned a few of the companies we were able to visit, I enjoyed every single site that we were able to see and tour. I learned so much, had a lot of fun and created lifelong bonds my peers. I could not be any more grateful than I already am, and I thank Smith so much for this opportunity!