This week in class, we held a debate about the Business Roundtable Statements of 1997 and 2019. The statement was released to demonstrate companies’ commitment to ESG and ethical standards. The 2019 statement declared for companies to provide value to all shareholders and to work towards the mission of the company. My group was chosen to argue that the newest statement signed by major corporations was empty rhetoric, meaning that their commitment to ESG was not genuine. We believed that the statement was too vague and allowed for companies to get away with signing the document with no way to hold them accountable. The other side argued that the document was a step in the right direction and was purposely left up to the interpretation of the company. On Wednesday, we then watched the movie “Civil Action” that followed an environmental injustice case in MA. The movie featured a lawyer that invested millions of dollars to defend the children of Woburn, despite the odds being against him. Overall, the movie showed how powerful corporations can be and the lengths they would go to cover their unethical actions.

In my internship, I continued to work on transferring data from the completed marketing study to the final report. I worked remotely for most of the week and was assigned daily tasks by my team via email and Skype calls. It is clear that my coworkers are becoming more trusting of me since they continue to increase my autonomy. When I returned to the office on Thursday, we all went out to lunch near the Navigli to celebrate one of the last days for another intern. During lunch, we compared the schooling system of the US to Italy. They were surprised that I was allowed to have an internship during my college years since most of them entered their industry after their graduation. Even then, they had to complete a 6-month internship training prior to receiving full-time employment. I enjoyed having this conversation with them because it showed how early our entrance into business industry is compared to other countries.

For travel this week, a group of us decided to take a trip to La Spezia to revisit the beach towns in and around Cinque Terre. We went cliff jumping and soaked in the sun for almost all of the day. I indulged in more gift shopping for my friends and family at home to add to the collection of postcards from various cities. On the Friday before our departure, we also took a trip to the Duomo to appreciate the beautiful cathedral. We reserved tickets to take the lift up to the top of the building where we saw almost all of Milan. The views ranged from the City Life Shopping District to rooftop restaurants! It was an amazing experience and I was grateful to have seen another one of Milan’s treasures. With still many more places in Italy to be explored, I hope to share more details on the blog about our upcoming trip to Rome!