This past week we did not have any in person class and instead were assigned to watch the film Erin Brockovich. The film is similar to themes that we have explored in class throughout the summer as it explores a large companies negligence that led to widespread health issues in the surrounding community. The film followed the protagonist as she struggled to gather information and evidence against the company, PG&E. This film did have a more satisfactory conclusion than A Civil Action in my opinion, as the lawyers were able to win the case and bring the affected families some satisfaction. Wednesday’s class was dedicated to working on our final papers and presentations. Although we haven’t presented them yet, I am very confident in my groups work and I look forward to showing the class.

 

At my internship this week Le Yang and I have been working with our supervisor Arianna to get a full account of the firm’s financial flows. As a non-profit, they do not have much money coming in other than the small amounts they generate from tours of the gallery and donations. Because of this, they have asked Le and I to try to find ways to minimize costs for them. They are also not very financially experienced and have requested that Le and I build them an excel sheet template for their budget. At the networking event, Arianna came and we got to speak a lot with her about her future plans and other work that she does in the industry. It was a really lovely experience and I will miss spending time at the office.

 

This past week many of the students from around the world living in Aparto with us left for the summer and on their last few days I was lucky enough to be able to spend some time with them. On Thursday we celebrated Sara’s birthday at a local cuban restaurant which was an absolutely lovely evening. Then over the weekend we traveled to a beautiful villa in the hills of Tuscany. It was an absolutely amazing experience and a wonderful way to end the trip. I am really going to miss these people and I am so thankful that I got to spend this time with such a great group of friends. We all got to then spend Sunday exploring Florence and having a great dinner together. What a great great time.

This week in class we explored how the Apple corporation sources many of their primary goods. The unethical conditions of many of their abroad facilities in China and Taiwan have become a large news story over the past decade. In class we debated whether or not the same ethical standards can and should be universally applied. The discussion was very interesting and for a topic with a seemingly obvious answer, when one analyses the true facts of the matter, the answer is not quite so clear. This opens up to the wider discussion of the class where we truly ask whether or not corporations have an obligation to pursue CSR initiatives or if the world would actually be better off if corporations solely pursued profit and let the price system figure out who should remain in business and who deserves to fail. As we come to the conclusion of the course, these questions remain unanswered, however they provide very interesting debate.

At work this week we presented our research on how the company can gain more financial support and how they can increase their social media presence. We had been working on this research for the previous two weeks and the date of the presentation kept getting pushed back by our boss. When she finally was able to come to the office to see it, we presented the work and it seemed to be positively received. She provided us some constructive criticism for the future of this work but was very happy with what we had produced thus far. In the coming weeks Le and I will be doing a cost analysis of the Fondazione to see where we can limit excess spending and generate more funding for the projects and goals that the company wishes to achieve.

 

I had a great week of immersing myself in not just Italian culture but also that of the beautiful country of Germany, and I was lucky enough to be invited to an Afghani restaurant by a friend from the region who I’ve gotten to know throughout the trip. I was able to visit some old family friends which was simply lovely. At the restaurant I visited with my friend Balouch, I got to try authentic Pashto food that we ate family style around the table. It was one of the best meals I have had in my life! Later that week I explored more of Milan and got to go to a new bar with the group. It was right behind our apartment and is relatively unassuming from the outside but the inside was a really cool place. While I was traveling alone through Italy and Germany, I really got to experience the challenges and benefits of independence in a foreign place. Once I arrived I had some authentic Bavarian food and got to spend a lovely weekend in the mountains.

This week at work, Le Yang and I completed the marketing and funding strategy proposal that we have been researching and drafting for the entire summer stay. We had plans to present the pitch to the president of the company, however she had to reschedule our meeting to this upcoming week as the kick off event for the Casa Albini project took up more time than she anticipated. Le and I got to attend this event where the winners of the contest were chosen. These winners were selected to live in Casa Albini to develop new sustainable houses. I look forward to presenting our work and hopefully implementing these strategies so that we can generate some tangible results. 

 

In class this week we had a very interesting debate on the Business Roundtable statements claiming that their goals were no longer to solely increase profits, but to generate value for their stakeholders. Our discussion centered around the question of whether or not this was simply empty rhetoric. It was a very interesting discussion and I enjoyed hearing about my classmates’ opinions. On Wednesday, we watched the film Civil Action which was about a personal injury lawyer who took on a case against two large firms for their environmental waste policies that ended up causing cancer in children. The film was both sad and eye opening. It really made me consider just how many similar cases there are in America today. 

 

This week I decided to spend my time exploring Milan completely. In the past weeks I have really only seen parts of the city near my apartment and where our classes are and I wanted to make sure that I explored the entire city. Two of my friends from Lehigh, who are not on the Lehigh in Milan program, decided to come visit me this weekend so I gave them a walking tour of the entire city. We explored the duomo, Sforzesco Castle, and the Arco della Pace. After 15 miles of walking, we decided to sit down to an absolutely amazing authentic Italian dinner. That night we went out to a couple restaurants and explored the city’s nightlife. While we were walking around, we came across a street performer singing with a large crowd circled around him all singing along. It was a really special moment that I will remember for the rest of my life. 

This week in class we continued to discuss the concept of a corporation and the importance of understanding them. For Monday’s class, we watched a film called The Corporation that systematically explained all of the characteristics and past injustices of corporations. Spanning from environmental damage to hormones in dairy cows and even the deliberate psychological analysis and exploitation of children, the film showed some of the truly reprehensible things that corporations have done. During Wednesday’s class we discussed a WSJ article about corporations taking stances on political and social issues. The class discussion was very interesting and it was nice to hear my classmates’ views on topics such as the recent Bud Light controversy and how various other corporations have decided to behave moving forward. 

 

At my internship this week, Le and I worked on researching potential funding for the Casa Albini project and began planning a social media campaign to spread the word about the project within architecture and design circles. We spent the early part of the week researching architecture pages with large followings and devising a strategy for outreach. Later on we worked on a presentation detailing our strategy for generating funding that we will be presenting to our boss this coming week. After its implementation, we will hopefully be able to secure funding and support for the project. One thing to look forward to is the kick-off event for the project on Thursday of next week that Le and I will be attending. 

 

This week was an absolute blast. Every day I aim to try a new bar/restaurant or a new food. Le and I have begun to explore the neighborhood around our job quite a bit and we found a lovely cafe where the gentlemen behind the counter joke around with us and make delicious sandwiches. On Wednesday we went to aperitivo after class with a few other international students living in Aparto who took us on an impromptu walking tour around a part of the city I hadn’t been to before. On Saturday I had one of the best days of my life. We traveled north to the Alps and did a ropes course through the trees. We enjoyed gorgeous views, ziplines, obstacles, and some trees that swayed a bit too much for my liking. We then got to see a lookout platform that is suspended over a steep gully down to a river. After that we drove a bit further into the mountains and did a short hike up to an alpine lake where I took a swim in the freezing water. After warming up we headed back to Milan, grabbed some dinner and went out to the canals to watch the Champions League final. Despite Milan losing, it was a very cool experience and I am so happy I got to see it. 

This Week’s Class 

In class this week, we examined the structure of corporate governance and its implications. On Tuesday we held debates in on two topics under the umbrella of corporate governance and social responsibility. The first debate was about the morality of banks charging interest on mortgages for people who are just trying to put a roof over their heads. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this one and asking questions after. The team that was arguing that charging interest was immoral did a very good job defending a point that is very difficult to defend. We also explored liability in our system and when the responsibility of public safety falls on companies versus the state. On Wednesday Sachi presented her WSJ article assessment on the legal action against Red 3 dye that is commonly found in candies like Skittles. We discussed the efficacy of FDA regulation and the responsibility of state governments to protect their citizens.

My Internship 

This week Le and I completed our research into finding sponsors that may be interested in the Fondazione and our young architect incubator program. I am starting to really enjoy working together with Le and Arianna, our immediate supervisor. Together we have researched similar programs around the world and investigated their funding. In the coming weeks we will curate a presentation to pitch to potential sponsors. On Thursday we were lucky enough to host a group of Swedish architects who were visiting Milan to learn about Italian architecture. We gave them a tour of the studio and gave them a presentation on the design method of Franco Albini, our founder. It was very interesting to learn more about the culture and history of my workplace and see more about what they do for the architecture and design community.

Cultural Immersion

This past week has been absolutely lovely. Due to the Italian holiday on Friday, the group had the day off work and got to travel to the beautiful city of Verona. I had no idea but Verona is the setting of Romeo and Juliet and the Montagues and Capulets were royalty in the city and the tragedy is based on true events. We had a lovely tour guide who showed us all of the sights in the city and took us to the top of the Arena, taught us a little etymology and connected some Italian words with English ones. I would’ve loved to stay in Verona much longer but the next day a small group of us had plans to travel to Lugano, Switzerland. Lugano was absolutely stunning in both the landscape and the city itself. It was an incredibly affluent place and the shopping district was lined with expensive Swiss watches and jewelry. The people mostly spoke Italian there which was very interesting as well. It was a lovely weekend and I look forward to exploring more of this beautiful part of the world.

 

 

Week one of our class on Corporate Social Responsibility has concluded and before we  delve deeper into the concepts of the class, we began by learning about the foundations of our modern system of governance and exchange. We learned about the life and works of the father of modern Economics, Adam Smith, in a documentary about his exploration of morality and commerce. The documentary explained his early conceptualizations of the price system, and how competition and price drove the markets. He explores the morality of man both in exchange and in general life. The second part of the documentary focused on Smiths’ famous work called The Wealth of Nations. This book explores the concepts of specialization and trade. In class we discussed the brief quiz we took before we arrived in Italy and debated some of our perceptions of the morality of corporations and the structure of our capitalist system. 

This week at my internship I was able to meet a few of my coworkers for the first time. My first time coming to the office I was able to meet the vice president of Fondazione Franco Albini and learn more about what the mission of the firm is. In addition to sharing the design and architecture impact of Franco Albini, the major project that me and my partner Le Yang will be working on is the development of Casa Albini, an incubator for young architects in Sardinia. Le and I have begun working on developing a presentation and pitch to potential sponsors of the project and hope to continue to develop financial support for the project. This week we have been researching similar programs for contemporary artists across the globe and hope to develop a funding strategy based on the previous successes of other programs. Our office is in a gorgeous area of the city and a simple perk of working for a designer and architect is the beautiful modern workspace we get to share. 

My first week here has been simply amazing. Upon arriving I immediately clicked with the other people on the trip and we have spent a lot of time together not only exploring Milan, but also traveling to Lago Maggiore and Cinque Terre. Here in Milan on our first night we traveled using the tram and the metro which I had had little experience with before but with the guidance of our resident advisor, we were able to find our way through the city. We passed by the Duomo, which is probably the single most beautiful building I have ever seen in my life, walked through the castle, through the park, and finally arrived at the Torre Branca. The view from the top was amazing and me and my friends were able to catch it right as the sun set. We enjoyed Italian cuisine and drinks and got to spend some time speaking with the IES advisors and Professor Gupta. Throughout the week we had our orientation and learned a little bit about some of the cultural differences between the US and Italy. I have definitely experienced some of this in my interactions with my internship where some of the differences in work culture made the adjustment tricky. This weekend we were lucky enough to get absolutely gorgeous weather during our trip to Lago Maggiore, where we traveled between the islands of the lake and saw some of the amazing homes of the Borromeo family. The lake was absolutely stunning and despite my choppy Italian while trying to order lunch, we were able to integrate and explore seamlessly.