We watched the documentary The Corporation in class this week. The film examined the behavior of corporations and explored their influence on society. I thought that the argument that corporations possess the characteristics of psychopathic individuals was very interesting. It was mind blowing to take a deep dive into corporations’ relentless pursuit of profit, disregard for the well-being of people and the environment, and their ability to manipulate governments and communities to serve their interests. After watching the film, I feel encouraged to question the dominant role of corporations in our lives and consider alternative models of business that prioritize social and environmental well-being. Watching the film in class serves as a wake-up call, urging us to demand greater transparency, accountability, and ethical behavior from corporations.

This week at Gen-USA was amazing! Jimmy and I worked on numerous projects and got to see our hard work benefit the company first hand. We were assigned the task of finding sales managers for a position at Zanasi, an Italian company that produces labels for the manufacturing industry. In addition, we had to find contact information for various warehouses that the company is interested in renting  out. After completing both tasks, we heard our boss call a potential sales manager candidate we found, and also call a few of the warehouse representatives. Another thing I enjoyed this week was cooking class at our head partner’s apartment for lunch on Wednesday. It was such a fun experience learning how to make home-made carbonara from local Milanese and spending time with my colleagues outside of the office. 

This weekend was packed with travel! On Friday, a few of us day tripped to Genoa. Once we arrived at the train station, we immediately decided we needed to get to the beach. The beach we ended up at was at least a 20 minute walk from the train station, and was nothing like Monterosso had been a couple weeks prior. We all passed out at our lounge chairs, and ended up swimming in the ocean for a little before heading back to Milan. Saturday we visited the Italian Alps and it was such a fun experience. Getting to do the rope course was so fun and I thought it was really cool we learned how to set up our own zip lines! The hike up the lake was beautiful, and although it wasn’t as flat as the IES people said it would be, the view was well with it. Today we went to Venice and although the journey started off a little rocky, the day couldn’t have been better! We ended up having to get off the train at a stop early on the way into Venice because there was a bomb threat on the Venice train station. Despite having no clue where we were, or how we would end up getting to Venice, we all stayed calm and ended up hopping on a bus that brought us to our destination. The weather was amazing and we roamed around all day enjoying the beautiful city. I am beyond exhausted after this super busy weekend but am so thankful I was able to experience so many awesome places with such great people!!