Texas Maki

Nursing & Wharton ’29
Nursing, HCMG, Finance
GRIP: Wine, Heritage, and Hospitality in Porto, Portugal

Ambassador
Regions: Europe

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Ask Me About…

  • working abroad
  • living independently
  • traveling while working full-time
  • learning about wine
  • what it feels like when somewhere completely new starts to feel normal

I spent my summer working at a Port wine producer in Porto, Portugal, but some of my favorite memories have almost nothing to do with wine.

Ask me about the walk to work through Jardim de Morro and along the Douro River, which I complained about when I first arrived and ended up missing when I left. Ask me about working in the caves, preparing hundreds of cheese boards and polishing what felt like thousands of wine glasses, and eventually getting comfortable enough to lead wine tastings for people from all over the world. Ask me about learning to cook every night after work, grocery shopping at Pingo Doce, figuring out the metro, and realizing that I could actually manage a full-time job and an entirely independent life in another country.

I also traveled almost every weekend, exploring Portugal and other parts of Europe, so I got the exciting side of being abroad too. But what surprised me most was how quickly the exciting parts became mixed in with a normal routine. Somewhere between my first and last commute, Porto went from a city I was trying to figure out to a place I knew.

My Experience Abroad

I came into GRIP knowing that I wanted to work with wine, but I did not really know what working in the wine industry would look like. At Churchill’s, I got to see the business from a lot of different angles. I worked in the tasting room and garden bar, helped in the kitchen, prepared cheese boards, stocked the store, worked in the caves, and eventually led wine tours and tastings. I especially enjoyed learning how much communication and hospitality goes into what can look like a very simple experience from the customer’s perspective.

Leading tastings was probably the biggest change for me professionally. At first, I was nervous about standing in front of a group and explaining wines to people who had traveled from all over the world. As I became more knowledgeable and comfortable, I stopped thinking about what I was going to say and started focusing more on the people in front of me. I learned how to read a group, explain something in a way that made sense to them, and adjust when someone had a question or a different level of knowledge.

That experience connects to what I am studying at Penn in Nursing and Healthcare Management more than I expected. Whether I am working with a patient, managing a team, or eventually working in healthcare administration, I will need to communicate with people who have different backgrounds, expectations, and levels of understanding. GRIP gave me a chance to practice those skills in a completely different setting. It also gave me my first experience working full-time, which helped me better understand the kind of professional environment I want to be part of after Penn.

Other Highlights

  • São João in Porto: One of my favorite nights in Porto was São João, when the city seemed to completely change. Streets were packed with people, music was everywhere, and people stayed out late celebrating together. It was one of the first times that I felt less like someone visiting Porto and more like I was actually participating in the city around me.
  • The Douro Valley: Getting to spend time in the Douro Valley was especially meaningful after working at Churchill’s. I had spent so much of the summer learning about Port wine, seeing the finished product in the tasting room, and working around the bottles every day. Seeing the vineyards where the process actually begins made the things I was learning at work feel much more real.
  • Traveling almost every weekend: I wanted to travel as much as possible before I arrived in Portugal, and I ended up taking that pretty seriously. I visited places throughout Portugal and also traveled to Valencia, Madrid, Paris, and Ibiza. Some trips were carefully planned and others came together quickly. What I liked most was coming back to Porto afterward. After spending a weekend somewhere completely unfamiliar, it was surprisingly nice to return to a place where I knew exactly where I was going.
  • World Cup in Porto: Watching the World Cup in packed squares around Porto was one of the most memorable examples of how different everyday life could feel abroad. I was surrounded by people I had never met, but everyone was reacting to the same game and celebrating together. It was a small glimpse into how sports can bring an entire city together, and it was one of those moments that would have been impossible to recreate back home.