This week has been very bittersweet as everything is suddenly wrapping up, although it feels like just yesterday we arrived. For one last hurrah, we all decided to rent a Villa in the Tuscany region outside of florence. On Monday morning we set out for our final train ride out of Milan where we arrived two hours later in the heart of florence. Once we got off the train we headed to our favorite grocery store, Conad, where we stocked up on 15 bags of pasta and any other food to last the weekend. After gathering as much as we could carry, we taxid out of the city and into the picturesque tuscany region filled with villas and vineyards. Our villa was tucked away on a private sprawling hill with 23 beds waiting for us along with a pool overlooking the view. Before we could enjoy the pool, we immediately began cooking dinner as we were starving from the journey there. I had never cooked for so many people but enjoyed hanging out in the kitchen with music along with a glass of wine in one hand and a spoon stirring in the other. For the rest of the weekend we played cards and games by the pool but most of all enjoyed the presence of being around eachother for the last time until we return to school. Saturday morning we devoured 60 eggs and by Sunday morning we ran out of food. However, we ventured into Florence, miraculously recieved our security deposit on the villa, and enjoyed a delicious brunch! We spent the rest of sunday shopping and gathering our final souvenirs until we boarded our last train home together. The decision to join Lehigh in Milan was one of the best decisions I have made and I will cherish every memory made along with every new friend I have met because of it.  

For our final days at SuiteFood, Tiffany and I were tasked with double the amount of assignments as usual. The end of the internship came out of nowhere with so much more to be done! On July 1st, SuiteFoods new line officially launched the products we had been marketing since our arrival. Our boss also recieved great news that a local food market chain is interested in carrying SuiteFood coconut milk within their stores! This was great news for Emmanuela and a great start for her new line of products. Although the internship is over, Tiffany and I intend to carry out our final tasks and posts from home and will always remain advocates for SuiteFood! 

This last week in class, we presented our group projects we have been working on for the past month. Hearing everyone present was extremely interesting as everyone had different topics that they had clearly put a lot of time and research into. The presentation topics ranged from equal pay to cancel culture to access to life-saving drugs. However I was very happy with the topic my group chose, Public Corporations and Their Environmental Disasters. It was extremly saddening yet interesting to learn about Exxon and Deepwater Horizon’s oil spills and how that tied into class and corporations social responsibility. For my part of the project I primarily focused on successful environmental initiatives being taken to prevent cases such as those from occuring again. I found numerous new robots and other new advancments in technology that help detect any hydrocarbons in the water and report it within two minutes to on call clean up crews. The class, while I admittedly struggled at moments to keep up, was extremely interesting and taught me more than I ever expected, with a large part of that being thanks to Professor Gupta. 

This past week at SuiteFood Tiffany and I had one of our final days in the office with our boss. It is shocking how fast our time interning has gone by and how much we have accomplished while there is so much more we could do. Emmanuela, our boss, has found a new love for content creating and has directed most of her focus on marketing by finding content ideas for Tiffany and I to recreate. Over the weekend Tiffany, Emmanuela and I brainstormed as many ideas as we could to make and publish before the product launch on July 1st. When we arrived on Monday Emmanuela had gathered tools and ingredients for us to use in videos. All day Tiffany and I creatively put everything to use and made eight postable reels to be used in the final days of promoting until the launch. It was extremely rewarding to see how happy and enthusiastic our boss was about her two interns making her ideas a visual reality. 

This week in class we watched the movie Erin Brockovich. This past semester in my management class we watched and discussed numerous clips from the movie and I had been looking forward to watching the full movie since! The movie is based on a true story about Erin Brockovich, a struggling single mother of three, and Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). The story highlights the importance of corporate social responsibility as it is about PG&E knowingly contaminating water in a small town through chromium 6, a poison that can cause cancer and numerous other severe illnesses. Despite having no experience in the legal field, Erin Brockovich is relentless and ends up achieving one of the largest legal victories to date. The film highlights the ethical obligations and responsibilities corporations must obtain despite how powerful they may be. This demonstrated a prime example of how public companies must act in the interest of others and not just themselves and acknowledge how what they do affects others and be held accountable for their actions through corporate social responsibility. 

Over the weekend I made plans to visit Lake Garda on Friday and Portofino on Saturday and Sunday. However, early on Friday morning we were harshly reminded of the strike culture in public transportation as we arrived at the train station half asleep and were informed everything was canceled due to a strike. It was shocking to us that there had been no communication about this until about an hour after our train was supposed to depart. In the 90 degree heat we attempted to make the best of the situation and had brunch in an area we had never been and tanned in the Aparto courtyard with water bottles dumped on us to cool off. For dinner, a large group of us went to Osteria da Fortunata, a viral restaurant on Tik Tok, famous for an old woman making pasta by hand in the window. Although the restaurant catered to tourists, dinner was delicious and I would recommend it to others. On Saturday morning myself and six others began our girls trip to Portofino. With our fingers crossed, we headed to the train station and luckily boarded our train to Santa Margherita, a beach town outside of Portofino, known for where Milan locals escape on the weekends. The town exceeded all of my expectations as it was lined with quaint, colorful buildings on one side and radiant umbrellas along the blue water on the other. We immediately headed to the beach taking hundreds of pictures along the way of the perfectly detailed and manicured buildings and beaches with mountainous backdrops. We arrived at a beach club and headed to the water where we swam through the deep crystal blue water to a floating dock. We laid and jumped off the dock for hours and made friends with the local children doing the same. The afternoon on the dock had no documentation but I know pictures wouldn’t be able to do justice of how perfect it was. As the beach began to wind down we set off on our mile walk to our airbnb which ended up being majority up a winding driveway up into the mountain. However the sweaty hike was proved to be completely worth it with a deck looking out at a stunning view of the mountains and marina. After a girls night dinner we went to sleep and the next morning decided to stay in Santa Margherita instead of venturing to Portofino because of how perfect our day prior was. 

 

This past week myself and eight others took a plane to Barcelona for a two night stay. On friday afternoon we boarded our plane from Malpensa airport and took an hour and half flight into Barcelona where we checked into our first ever hostel stay! The hostel surprised me as we had a private room, bathroom, and air conditioning! After settling in we ventured to a five-star tapas restaurant for dinner. The five stars were well deserved as all of our dishes were amazing and paired perfectly with our sangria pitchers. After about 20 tapas plates we sat stuffed, yet somehow were convinced to order all of the desserts to wrap up our night.  Everything was delicious and we ended up enjoying ourselves in the restaurant until 1am. The next morning we woke up and went to brunch at a restaurant which was highly recommended by everyone we knew who studied abroad in Barcelona.  All of our dishes were delicious while having a very unique presentation. After brunch we walked to La Rambla where we shopped and saw La Sagrada Familia and Casa Batllo. After a long day of walking in the heat we went home to get ready for the night. Nearly all of us knew someone abroad in Barcelona this summer as there is a similar program from Lehigh. Everyone we knew overlapped and had joined together to plan a perfect night out for us. We began our night meeting up with everyone at Dow Jones Bar which was stock market theme. The concept was very fun as it had hundreds of drinks on screens where the price of the ‘stock’ for the drink was constantly changing, if more people bought the drink, the price of the drink, or ‘stock’, would increase. However, every fifteen minutes there was a market failure and all drinks dropped to three dollars. After the bar we headed to a club where famous American EDM artist John Summit was performing. We somehow scored VIP wristbands and spent the night dancing together next to John Summit. Sunday morning we enjoyed another delicious brunch before boarding a large 20 person boat. The boat had an indoor area which included food and drink along with nets over the water to lay in. We were taken about 45 minutes away from the shore and jumped off the boat and swam in the deep blue water. After boating we enjoyed dinner on the water and headed to the airport where we took a flight that got us home at 5 am for our Monday morning work day. 

This past week at SuiteFood, Tiffany and I were brought in as guests to a class at The Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, also known as NABA, an international university with the world title of the Best Italian Academy of Fine Arts. When we arrived we were brought in front of a class to introduce ourselves and explain what we were doing in Italy for the summer. After our introductions we watched groups present their final semester projects which were for a new SuiteFood line. Emmanuela had paired with the NABA teacher to create a project for the students to help her design and launch her new product coming out in september. There was a presentation on packaging, digital media, event planning and sustainability. The presentations were extremely well done and I was highly impressed in the quality, professionalism and that they did it all in perfect english!  

This week in class we watched a movie called,  A Civil Action . The film was based on a true story regarding a personal injury lawyer, also known as an ambulance chaser. The movie was based on lawyer Jan Schlichtmann as he decided to take on a case against major corporations accused of polluting a small town’s water supply. The town had numerous sudden deaths of children without any reason along with many members being sick or disabled. Throughout the pursuit Schlightmann faced numerous challenges in regards to CSB. He ended up settling and going broke. The corporations eventually were shut down in the town they polluted yet never were truly exposed or apologized for the damage they had done and lives lost. This was a very interesting movie as we have been debating corporate social responsibility in class and saw how these companies didn’t care about the harm they caused as they were making profit despite their wrongdoings and could afford to pay off any amount to not be exposed. 

 

This past week I went to a beach in Genoa, hiked in the Alps and spent a day in Venice, the perfect pairing of weekend activities! On Friday, ten of us woke up and took an early train to Genoa where we then walked twenty minutes to a nearby beach. It became apparent that this beach was a local area as tourists renting their umbrellas appeared unheard of to the workers. We spent the day falling in and out of naps in the sun, decompressing after our busy work week. The next day nearly everyone from Lehigh boarded a bus to the Alps where we were dropped off at a zipline obstacle course.  We watched a video in Italian on safety instructions and were sent to the course where we were in charge of hooking and unhooking all of our cables with no supervision, safety waivers, or helmets. It has been very interesting to compare the safety precautions taken in the US versus here, which is something I will not share with my dad.  After a morning in the treetops overlooking the snowy mountain range, we made our way to the bus where we drove the windy roads to a hiking trail. We hiked forty five minutes with never ending scenic views until we reached a large lake made of glacier runoff. After watching a few polar plunges into the lake we headed home and watched Inter Milan in the Champions League final. The next morning, without hesitation, we woke up for another early travel morning and trained to Venice. We walked the streets and went into nearly every store selling Murano Glass where I attempted to secure everyone I know a souvenir. The day flew by before me and I have already decided I would love to plan another day trip back. The canals and small allies were impossible to see all of but exceeded my expectations as it was prettier than any postcard pictures I had seen. Before heading home we found our way to the first authentic Italian restaurant I had been to since arriving in Italy. It was clear they did not cater to tourists as we were scolded for the request of parmesan on a seafood dish, as it would be against the law in the eyes of an Italian. Although the food was almost too authentic and real for us Americans, I knew my family would have loved this restaurant and wished they were there. 

For my Internship this week, my boss gave me creative freedom to make any content I found would be beneficial to advertising her new products. On my weekend trips I brought her product samples and made videos and pictures at the beautiful sights and recognizable landmarks. The idea behind this was that her product can be used anywhere due to its convenience. I found ways to incorporate my friends into the videos which made all of the content unique and entertaining. We made vlogs and tik toks using her products and had photoshoots at each destination. When I met with my boss yesterday, she was thrilled by the content we had created. I will now be in charge of editing and uploading it this week and seeing the response we get on her website. In addition to this, Tiffany and I have been setting up a ‘studio’ at her office to make the product also have a professional and aesthetic side to target a more simplistic and mature audience. 

​​This week in class we watched the documentary, “The Corporation”. The documentary discussed the impact of corporations along with their history and behaviors and how this influences society and the economy. It taught us how corporations are legally considered as individuals, yet they dont act in this way as they are most focused on profit above ethics and morals in many cases. The documentary raised awareness about the negative consequences of corporate dominance and highlighted numerous environmental issues, health and safety issues and bad labor conditions. The documentary showed the extent of how corporations change our lives whether for better or worse. 

 

 

Last Sunday I cluelessly exited the plane and entered my new life in Italy with nearly one hundred pounds worth of luggage and an address to my new home. As soon as I arrived to Aparto, I treated myself to my first of many croissants and bought my first legal celebratory bottle of wine for $3.50. Although I was drained from fighting jet lag, my excitement pushed me through orientation and miles of walking through the city. Slowly I began to get my bearings straight and since, I have mastered my commute to work, IES, and class. According to my apple watch, I have walked nearly 72 miles since our arrival, however most of these miles have been from one meal to the next. This past Saturday, I took my first ever train ride to Lake Maggiore and was shocked by its beauty. As a group, we boated to three of the main islands and explored the small streets, restaurants, and magnificent views of the mountain ranges with small towns tucked in overlooking the lake. The next day a group of myself and ten others woke up at 4:30 am and headed to take a train to Monterosso, one of the first of the Cinque Terre, meaning five lands. After a three hour ride consisting mostly of naps, we arrived to the small mountainous town on the Ligurian Sea filled with colorful buildings and beach chairs lining the water. We adventured the town and had breakfast before securing chairs on the water for the day. I made one of my favorite investments of the trip and bought a snorkel set which we all used to swim out and see the fish. After a long day of swimming, tanning, and snacking we boarded the train home where we entertained the cabin with games and laughs for four hours. After arriving back to Milan we ate dinner along the canal and prepared for our internships the next day. 

Outside the classroom, I have started a marketing and communications internship at SuiteFood, a women owned start up business located in Milan. SuiteFoods goal is to make ready to cook asian cuisine so you can “explore flavors, without borders”. At the moment, SuiteFood is very similar to brands we know such as HelloFresh which provide easy to cook meal kits. However, founder Emmanuela has created a new line in which myself and Tiffany, a fellow student at Lehigh, will be working on promoting. The new line contains easy to make coconut milk, coconut water and curry and will be launched in mid July. For the internship we are in charge of the promotion and countdown to create exposure and publicity around the new product launch. To do so, we will make Tik Toks, reels and Instagram posts. From these, we will analyze the views and traffic on her website to see what is the most effective marketing strategy and what audience we should target. 

This summer I have the pleasure of taking another class with Professor Gupta where we will learn about Corporate Social responsibility along with a separate internship seminar class. So far, we have studied Adam Smith and how his theories have impacted the free market and the economy today through two interesting videos. From these videos we have made numerous connections between current events that tie back to the beliefs and theories of Adam smith. We have been encouraged to read the Wall Street Journal and for homework we have picked articles to write about and educate the class on controversial current events today. Additionally, we visited a firm called Circularity where we learned about a circular economy opposed to the linear economy we live in today. The idea of a circular economy is to reduce the amount of waste by mitigating the current “take, make, waste” economy and create a make, use, recycle to re-use model. The idea of this is that anything that is created must have an end plan before it is even made. For example, if a company is making clothing, each material put into the product must have a plan as to where it will go and how it will be reused at the end of its life resulting in no waste. This was a very interesting concept which many Italians are passionate about. 

 

 

Last Monday, I commuted to ChinaTown for the first time where SuiteFood is based to meet with my boss Emmanula. To get to ChinaTown I hopped on the closest tram and took it to the Duomo and then took a trolley to Chinatown, totaling about 45 minutes during rush hour, or an hour by foot. With Emmanuela and Tiffany, we brainstormed new ideas and trends we could incorporate into our marketing. We then tested each product and learned about health benefits while also convenience benefits. For the rest of the day I worked with Emmanuela on creating a new logo for her company along with a new slogan for her new line. At the moment her slogan is directed towards her meal kits to make asian cuisines. However, her new product launch consists of powders in which you add water to make coconut beverages. This past week I created content while traveling and made an introduction video to post as a lead up to the new product launch on July 1st. 

In class, we split into groups of four and read two controversial stories. Once we read the stories, we were assigned a side to take and debated it in front of the class. For my group, we read about a widowed, elderly women who fell for a scam of over $800,000. The money had been wired by her bank across seas by the time she realized it was fraudulent. For the debate, my team had to argue that the bank should have been held reliable for not doing research as to where the large sum of money was going andif it was a legit transaction, especially due to the women’s demographics. The next class I found both topics discussed from classmates Wall Street Journal entries to be fascinating. Sachi discussed the announcement that Tik Tok may be banned in Montana due to evidence that China is spying through the app. This then lead to a debate about whether it is more important to protect our safety or preserve freedom off speech.  Additionally, Bryan had an interesting topic about the dangers if red food dye in candy and the FDAs position. 

This past week I traveled to Verona, Lake Como, and Lugano Switzerland. On Friday, everyone from Lehigh took a train to Verona, a small town I hadn’t heard of prior to this week. We took the train an hour out of the city where we took a bus to a small winery where we were given a tour to learn about the wines we would be tasting. After the tour we sat and tried three different red wines, paired with the foods that best complimented them. After the tasting, we walked into the town where we met a tour guide. Although Iam usually not a fan of tours, our guide kept everything entertaining and catered to the younger audience. Verona was rightfully packed with tourist as the town sprawled with cute streets and shops along with historical buildings, including where Romeo and Juliet met. On Saturday, myself and ten others took a train to Lugano Switzerland where the classic post card pictures of Switzerland became reality. The mountains stretched up to the sky with small buildings nestled into the trees surrounding the lake. Although the food and stores were extremely expensive, we were able to rent a pontoon boat and escape into the center of the lake to get the perfect view of the shorelines. On Sunday, we set out for our last adventure of the week to Lake Como. As soon as we arrived I knew we had landed in the town I had been warned about, notoriously packed with tourist. To escape the crowds and tourist traps we ventured along a path where we found speed boat rentals. After a picnic on the water, we spent two hours jetting around the lake, swimming in the center, and admiring the beautiful towns and houses scattered in the mountains. After boating, we were on a mission to escape the tourist trap restaurants for dinner. We set out deep into the back streets of the town where I had one of my favorite meals yet. The meal was so good that we intentionally missed our train and rescheduled a later time just so we could get dessert!