In February 2020, Business Administration major Katherine studied Economics and Business with the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Vienna, Austria.
Guten Tag!
My name is Katherine Bublitz and I am a sophomore in Business Administration currently studying abroad in Vienna, Austria. I am from Charlotte, North Carolina and have lived in NC my entire life. I also have never traveled out of the US until this experience so it has definitely been a bit of a learning curve in terms of learning how to navigate the world around me (especially learning to navigate through foreign airports). And while getting settled here in Vienna was a challenge at first, I’ve been here for just about a month now and can already say that Vienna feels like home.
I knew I wanted to find a school that was specific to business so that I could continue to work on some of my degree requirements which is how I found and chose Vienna University of Economics and Business.
Katherine Bublitz
Business Administration
I didn’t start out at NC State as a student in the Poole College of Management. I actually started out as a Human Biology major but after the first semester of my freshman year, I decided medical school was not for me and began exploring my options, ending up in Business Administration. Since I didn’t start out at State as a PCOM student, I was a little behind when I started looking at universities to potentially study abroad at. Because of this, I knew I wanted to find a school that was specific to business so that I could continue to work on some of my degree requirements which is how I found and chose Vienna University of Economics and Business. Vienna University of Economics and Business is commonly referred to by students here in Vienna as WU, standing for Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien and it’s one of the top-ranked business schools in all of Europe so I’m going to have the opportunity to take a lot of really interesting courses while I’m here! My schedule for the semester looks a little bit different than it would if I was home at State because I am only taking four classes: International Finance, International HR Management & Organizational Behavior, International Marketing and Management, and Management Accounting.
Coming into college as a freshman I knew for certain that at some point during the four years I would be at State that I was going to study abroad. Initially, all I knew for certain was that I wanted to travel since I never had the chance to prior to university, but once I started researching more about it I found that it’s really a unique experience that’s offered to us as students. I was friends with a lot of people who had told me it was the best experience of their undergraduate careers and hearing that from multiple people I knew I couldn’t miss out on the opportunity to have such an amazing global experience. As I said earlier, I’ve only been in Vienna for about a month, but this city really already feels like home to me with all the friends I’ve met and the memories I’ve made. I can’t wait to share more with you about my adventures in Vienna and throughout Europe as I am abroad this semester!
