Phil Bratten has traveled all over the world with his position at H.J. Heinz Co. He is currently in Pittsburgh, PA, having recently returned from a year-long assignment in Tokyo

 

What makes this alumnus notable?

During his years in the Petroleum Industry and for the last 20 years with the international food company, H.J. Heinz, Phil has had the opportunity to exercise his business skills and satisfy his love of foreign languages, cultures and music with assignments and travel to such diverse places as Ghana, Tunisia, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, China, Portugal, Thailand, Japan, Seychelles, New Zealand, Indonesia, India, Russia and American Samoa.

 

AMIGOS: How did your involvement in AMIGOS impact your life?

Phil: AMIGOS influenced me in several ways. My eyes were opened to a world in which English is not always widely spoken. In order to communicate with those around me, I had to learn their language. My participation in AMIGOS motivated me to improve the Spanish that I began studying in elementary school. My love of Spanish spilled over into an interest in other languages and cultures. College and graduate school brought opportunities to study Japanese and Chinese while living in those countries. Job assignments in Brazil, France, the Netherlands and Italy encouraged the study of Portuguese, French, Dutch and Italian.  AMIGOS also provided an environment in which, as a young person, I was entrusted with responsibilities far in excess of what I imagined I was capable of achieving. I learned that young people, when given the opportunity, will rise to the challenge and with strength and enthusiasm accomplish more than they themselves or others thought possible. Those early experiences gave me confidence in the face of difficult tasks. 

 

AMIGOS: What was your AMIGOS experience like, and what did you learn from your participation? 

Phil: As a naïve, 17-year-old high school graduate, I arrived in Paraguay wide-eyed at the new experiences of international travel, learning about a new culture and a taking on a challenging assignment. I was paired up with Rich Beach, a seasoned volunteer, who taught me by example how to serve with humility and with an appreciation of the people we worked with. We lived with a doctor and his family and took day trips into the country — sometimes by pick-up truck and often on horseback — to set up vaccination stations at local schools. In the evenings we visited with the family around the dinner table by the light of a gas lantern. On the weekends, we visited neighbors, attended birthday parties and local dances and were welcomed into the community.  My thoughts about what it meant to be poor were changed by my experience. The people in the town where we worked did not have a lot of money, but they had rich and fulfilling lives that were full of concern for family and friends and a desire to see their children receive a good education and live healthy lives.  In addition, what little they had, they were willing to share.

 

AMIGOS: What is your favorite AMIGOS memory?

Phil: While serving as a Project Supervisor in Paraguay, I learned about a small town in the region called La Colmena that was established in the 1930s by 100 Japanese families who immigrated to Paraguay to establish an agricultural community. I hadbegun studying Japanese in college and was interested in visiting the town to learn about the lives of these immigrants. On a Sunday, I traveled to La Colmena and struck up conversations with some of the residents. A pharmacist invited me to the community center where each Sunday a college student volunteer from Japan taught Japanese to interested members of the community. I sat in on the class as we read a children’s story and discussed the grammar and content. The pharmacist invited me to his home for dinner and he and his family shared with me the struggles their immigrant parents faced when they were uprooted from Japan, transported to the other side of the world and did their best to establish a new home for their families. The second generation was doing well, but still faced many challenges in their adopted homeland. I returned to our AMIGOS project headquarters that evening thankful for the opportunity to see yet another culture within the Paraguayan culture that I was growing to love more and more.

 

AMIGOS: What is your family like?

Phil: I am the youngest of five children and the proud uncle of nine nieces and nephews. Most of my nieces and nephews have finished their university studies and are establishing their own careers in various parts of the country. However, my parents, brothers and sister and their families get together as an extended family at least every Christmas. I have also enjoyed indulging my nieces and nephews in visits to Pittsburgh as well as to cities where I have had overseas assignments such as Lisbon, Milan and Tokyo. I like to think that their interest in foreign languages and cultures was inherited from their Uncle Phil.  

 

AMIGOS: In what ways did your AMIGOS experience influence your career path?

Phil: AMIGOS gave me a love of different languages and cultures, a desire to learn more about the world and a hope that I could contribute to making the world a better place. 

 

AMIGOS: What project are you currently working on?

Phil: I serve on the board of directors of Music in World Cultures, an international faith-based organization dedicated to establishing and advancing the use of music as a tool in developing cross-cultural relationships. MIWC's staff share a commitment to service and active engagement with professional and community groups. These include academic, religious, and professional organizations or institutions. We are currently partnering with organizations in Ukraine, Estonia and other former Soviet Bloc countries to provide teaching workshops and establish schools for training musicians and community leaders. 

 

AMIGOS: Are you passionate about Latin American affairs or the Spanish language?

Phil: I am fortunate to have business opportunities that allow me to travel from time to time to Latin America, Spain and Portugal. Last year, while living in Tokyo, I had the rewarding experience of working for a Portuguese boss. I have several friends from Latin America and I often take vacation trips to Spanish-speaking countries.

 

AMIGOS: What advice would you give to someone who wants to use language in his or her career?

Phil: There are wonderful opportunities for people who excel in their field of interest and in addition to their technical skills are able to communicate in other languages. Learn a skill or trade that you love and add to it fluency in other languages.

 

AMIGOS: Who is your biggest role model in your industry?

Phil: I have always admired Henry J. Heinz, the founder of the H. J. Heinz Company. One of his mottos was, “Do the common thing uncommonly well.” His life was an example of hard work and honesty in dealing with customers, suppliers and employees. Long before the establishment of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Pure Food and Drug Act, Henry Heinz was packing food products in glass bottles so consumers could see the purity of the products they were buying. He also had an interest in establishing business ventures overseas. Heinz’s first international operation was established in 1910 in England and now almost 60 percent of the company’s revenues are generated outside of the United States.