Cultural Immersion: I started my fourth week with a day trip to Florence on Sunday! I walked around the whole city, admired the Duomo, saw the David, and had some of the best pasta and gelato. At the end of this week, a couple of my classmates and I went to the top of the Duomo and got the best view of Milan. After taking in the view, we walked down into the Cathedral and were in awe of its size and beauty. My favorite part of the Duomo was the stain glass windows that scaled the walls. I loved further exploring this historical aspect of Milan and see myself going back to the top of the Duomo when I have a free hour. I am so excited to travel back to Cinque Terre this weekend to explore the 4 other coastal villages!

Class on Corporate Social Responsibility: This week we had a debate regarding the 2019 Business Roundtable statement and the validity of its rhetoric. My group had to argue its invalidity and insincerity in tangible action by companies. Ultimately, the class concluded that along with signing this document, corporations should publish their own statements on their specific ESG efforts to prove the authenticity of their claims. We also viewed the film, “A Civil Action” where John Travolta portrayed a personal injury lawyer trying two major corporations for the environmental and health consequences their production had on the city of Woburn, Massachusetts. Their production had contaminated the water of the city and caused many children to be diagnosed with Leukemia. It was terrible that this persistent pursuit to sue the companies is what made them finally take accountability for the damage they had done. This movie displays why ESG and CSR are essential in conjunction with firms trying to make a profit.

Internship: This week in my internship, we had a hard deadline on completing one pagers for a Fast Track event. Fast Track is an opportunity for select startups to present their company and decks to partners of Fin+Tech for investment prior to the third startupbootcamp program cycle. These one pagers provide partners with a brief overview of what the company is, their differentiating factors, and how their product works. I also worked on reaching out to potential European investors via LinkedIn this week and setting up calls with them to learn more about their investment portfolios and discussing the early stage investment opportunities we have. On Tuesday, Sophia and I went to an Aperitivo with our coworkers and bosses at a very cool spot around the corner from our office. It is always nice to step out of the office and get to know my coworkers better over coffee, lunch, and aperitivo.