1) Academic Course on Corporate Social Responsibility

This week in class we looked at a case study done on Apple which shed light on their suppliers’ spotty track record in human rights violations. After looking at the case study, two groups debated each other on if it was reasonable for Apple to apply different ethical standards to different countries based on their respective laws. I believe that as an American company with a set of company-wide values, it’s important to apply those same set of values to all countries regardless of what might be legally allowed there, but it was interesting to hear what the group arguing against that had to say on the topic. Next week we do not have any in-person classes as our presentations draw closer and we have extra time to work on perfecting them.

(2) Practicum in Milan with an Italian Company

This week I saw some of the work I’d been doing for the past few weeks come to fruition as my boss presented me with a list of 10 job candidates that he had selected out of the spreadsheet of about 100 I had given to him the week prior. Alongside a couple of other interns, our job was to find their contact information and reach out to them via a wide variety of social media platforms to gauge their interest in a new job opportunity located in Minnesota. I have a greater appreciation for the jobs of recruiters as finding personal email addresses and social media accounts for the candidates was a challenge.

(3) Social and Cultural Immersion through travels in Italy and Europe

This past weekend I was able to visit the towns of Cinque Terre for the first time, and I was very impressed. We used La Spezia as a home base to travel out of, and were able to visit four out of five of the towns, my favorite being Vernazza which we spent the most time in over the weekend. I also learned that there was a Disney movie based off of Cinque Terre that used the main square of Vernazza as inspiration so it was cool to watch that for the first time and see the colorful houses animated into the movie. This upcoming weekend I will be taking time to explore Milan, as for every other weekend before this I have been visiting a different city and want to get the chance to see more of Milan before we leave in less than two weeks.