Exploring Italy this week has been a lot of fun. On Sunday, Bella and I walked all around Milan and went shopping on all of the small streets near Aparto. We both bought a lot of clothes for work and exploring Milan. On Monday I worked remote, so I had some more free time to explore. I got gelato and really enjoyed our dinner altogether at all you can eat sushi. On Tuesday, I forgot my passport for the last supper and had to take a couple of Uber’s to get there in time, but it was so worth it to see. I did not know anything about The Last Supper, so it was cool to learn more about and get to see in person. Tuesday and Wednesday nights were mostly spent doing homework and catching up on calls with family from home. Going into Verona on Friday, I had no expectations because I did not research it before we went as a group. It was so much more beautiful than I was expecting and I love all of the markets they had in their center square.
My internship this week was a lot more hands on, and we got more direction and specific tasks this week as well that was really helpful. On Monday, I spent it remote researching United States investors that would be interested in joining our program in investing in and helping start-up companies. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I was in person in the office where I got new tasks. On Tuesday, I started shifting my research to looking for start-up companies all over the world that utilize artificial intelligence for uses such as budgeting, forecasting, or other accounting services. On Wednesday, I narrowed my research to looking for companies with the same requirements, but start-up companies only being from either Germany, France, or Switzerland. I also continued this same research on Thursday working remotely from Aparto. Due to the very specific requirements that I needed to research, I found this task to be difficult, but my co-workers are very understanding and the other, more experienced intern has been very helpful.
Class this week focused a lot on governance and structure of businesses, specifically the differences between the shareholders and the stakeholders. I was really interested in the Wall Street Journal article that was presented on TikTok being banned in Montana. The talk of the potential security breaches with Tik Tok has been increasing over the past one to two years and I suspected bans on the app would arise soon. On one side, I do think that TikTok is a great outlet for businesses, content creators, and finding news (while I always validate and do my further research on alternative platforms), on the other hand, the thought of China being able to fully investigate my phone, see my location, and all of my information is scary to think about. Maybe banning it just for the military could be a good alternative instead of banning Tik Tok for all citizens, considering it provides a lot of positives as well.
