Our last full week in Milan was truly amazing. To start off the week, Sara and I went to the Coldplay concert at San Siro stadium which was so much fun. Coldplay has always been one of my favorite bands, so the opportunity to see them in Milan was once-in-a-lifetime. Chris Martin brought out Zucchero Fornaciari, a famous italian singer, and the crowd arguably cheered louder for him than they did during the entire Coldplay concert. The next day was Sara’s birthday, and following the IES networking event, we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Bodeguita. Thursday was Corrine’s birthday, and we celebrated by going to Chihuahua Tacos and then out to Old Fashioned, a popular club in Milan. On Friday, we made our way to Florence! This weekend, 22 of us stayed in a large villa in the countryside on Friday and Saturday night. We had a lot of laughs, and I will forever remember how much fun this weekend was. I can’t think of a better way to spend our last full weekend in Italy. On Sunday, since we had to leave the villa by 11 am, we went into the city and walked around all day. We went to Boboli gardens, and saw the Duomo. We went to Za Za for dinner, and me and Kat ordered the Florentine style tenderloin steak.

 

This last full week at my internship was also really special. I am so grateful to have worked at Simplifhy, and I have gained such valuable experience. On Monday, I again attended the weekly organizational meeting where they discussed their cash flow statements for the month. They discussed how much they should charge for their services, and they predicted the cash flows for the next few months based on various projects. On Tuesday, we went out to lunch as a group, and another friend of the business joined us. He was a company owner as well, and we discussed the lack of gender diversity in engineering, and how to best mitigate this gap. On Wednesday, Sergio had planned an Aperitivo as a thank you for the work I did for them. I was so surprised when they took me to Montevecchia, a beautiful town outside of Milan in the countryside. I didn’t know such a beautiful Tuscany-like town was so close to the city. We ate outside and enjoyed the view of the beautiful overlook. They got me flowers too which was really nice. To conclude the work week, Sergio and I met with an electrode supplier to see if they would be interested in supplying a part for the potential joint venture deal. The purpose of the meeting was to get more technical specifications on their part (an electrolyzer stack), so that I could better compare it with other options when choosing a supplier. They didn’t disclose this information, because in order to do so, they wanted more information from us that we were not prepared to share. They also discussed potentially signing an NDA in the future.

 

This week, while we did not meet in class, Ian, Brian, and I began working on our research paper and final presentation. I have always found the ambiguity of freedom of speech and conflicts surrounding the first amendment really interesting. I enjoyed looking at different cases where the first amendment comes into question. I also would like to note that I really have enjoyed reading the Wall Street Journal articles. Reading and sifting through these articles each week has inspired me to want to stay more updated with current events. It has also inspired me to want to talk more to my peers about political issues that are going on in our world. In the past, I have always been one to shy away from discussing potentially controversial topics/politically polarizing issues. Now, I feel more confident in forming, expressing, and defending my opinions. Thank you to professor Gupta for a wonderful six weeks, and for leading such thought provoking discussions.

This week in class, we watched Erin Brockovich. This is the story of Erin, played by Julia Roberts, who is a single mother and legal assistant fighting against a California corporation, Pacific Gas and Electric Company. PG&E is being accused of polluting drinking water in a tow that has caused many medical issues to the citizens.  In the end, she was able to win a $333 million dollar settlement for there damages. This is a ground breaking film that relates heavily to our class. PG&E obviously did not decide to maintain ESG in their business and ended up hurting not only the people, but losing $333 million dollars. If they decided to not pollute the water, everyone could have been saved from their future distresses.

At my internship this week, Jon and I are evaluating reviews made on Trustpilot, a review website, and presenting them to our supervisor. To do this, we split this into two parts, reviews of Tempocasa and reviews of competitors in the same industry. We would take the best and worst reviews from all companies and compile them into a list, with the most common ones being our main focus. By doing this, we are able to do an analysis on what Tempocasa is doing well and what they shouls be improving on. Evaluating competitors will allow us to do the same as we can take improvements or good actions they have done and hopefully incorporate them into Tempocasa. In all, this presentation should allow Tempocasa a more in depth view on their image in the Italian real estate industry.

In my journey in Italy this week, I visited Catatonia in Sicily. Sicily is located in southern Italy so I needed to take a 2 hour plane ride there. While Sicily, is still in the same country as Milan, I was surprised at how different it felt. The food was different as they served more Sicilian dishes compared to more traditional Italian dishes. This is a slight combination of Greek and Italian dishes. When I was there, I visited the Catatonia Doumo, Dog Beach, and other smaller landmarks. The Doumo was different than the Milan one as it was samller and I was not able to go inside, but the outside was very impressive and plaza was bustling with nightlife. The city itself was beautiful and I hope I am able to go back and experience more of Sicily.

Practicum with Internship:

As Mason and I near the end of our experience and Fondaziones Franco Albini, we hoped that we have contributed and provided value to our company. We had a networking event on Tuesday with all the other IES interns and their sponsors. I was able to meet Brandi, the other professor that teaches at IES. Our boss wasn’t able to come due to travel, but her assistant Arianna stopped by the event briefly. She is also the person that we talk to and work with at work. This event allowed me to know a little more about her and what her life as a student is like. She is preparing for a final exam coming up soon while also balancing the work. For the last week, we are tasked with making a sheet for the past year to keep track of revenue and expenses.

Academic course on CRS:

On Monday, I watched the film, Erin Brockovich. I thought this film was similar to A Civil Action. Both protagonists in each movie are tenacious lawyers who have a sense of justice for their local community. I was able to get a different perspective through Erin’s story as she fights for her beliefs. She is a single mom who has three kids and is the only source of income for the family. You could see the hardship and personal struggles that someone like Erin goes through. This is also the last week we have before our presentation on the research paper, so I’ve been busy doing research and finishing up our project. I’m excited to share the results with the class.

 

Culture Immersion:

It’s crazy to think that I’ve been in Italy for about a month now. I feel like I’m a local of Milan, but at the same time, I still have so much of the city to explore. I’ve enjoyed my time here and learned a lot about Italy itself. I still don’t get how people wear suits and pants during this scorching summer weather. Someone has told me that it can get up to 104 degrees here in the summer near August, so I commend the people of Milan for being so professional. Reflecting back, the North and South of Italy are very different. The people down South seemed to speak Italian, but a different dialect than Milan. I wish I had more time to visit other places like Sicily or Sardinia. Looking forward, I will be visiting my relatives in Amsterdam after the program, so I’m excited to immerse myself in a different country and culture.

 

 

 

 

The week started off strong in Barcelona. Sara, Sam, Neave, Lili, Sachi and I arrived on Friday night and had the most delicious tapas meal. Each dish at the table was better than the next, and this has been my number one favorite meal I’ve had so far. The next day we went to the Basílica de la Sagrada Família and explored some shops and then walked by one of the houses of Gaudi. A highlight of the night was seeing DJ, John Summit, perform at a club called Pacha, and seeing other Lehigh students. This weekend, some of us girls stayed in Rapallo on Saturday night, and enjoyed two beautiful beach days in Santa Margherita on Saturday and Sunday. I had no idea what to expect, as I hadn’t heard of this beach town or Rapallo before, but it blew away all of my expectations. The Airbnb we stayed at had an amazing view of the mountains and we spent the night exploring Rapallo, which we learned was a very lively  and authentic city.

 

A highlight of class this week was the case study regarding the ethical evaluation of Apple’s suppliers. After Apple was under fire for using Foxconn and Pegatron, who have both been criticized for unethical working conditions, the question was posed… if you were Tim Cook, how would you respond? In class we debated if Apple should hold all of their suppliers to the same ethical standards, or apply different standards for different suppliers. I enjoyed hearing different perspectives of the class, and can see both sides of the argument. Apple is an American company with American customers criticized by Americans, so one would think it should be held to American codes of ethics. However I understand that each country is different and there are nuances when it comes to what is acceptable in one country vs another. The WSJ article I read this week also related to this debate. Instead of Apple it was reevaluating Shein’s job of auditing its suppliers.

 

This week at work was shorter, as I did not work on Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in Sesto, and Thursday and Friday were spent in Villasanta. I started to make a PowerPoint presentation in order to present a business case to another company. There were some things I needed to add to my write up of the business plan. I did some research regarding the feasibility of the use of hydrogen for glass and metal heating and quenching. One thing I learned is that right now, the cost of using green, renewable hydrogen fuel for such things is 5x as expensive and therefore not worth it to make the switch at this point. In the future, the government may allocate funds and give incentives for companies to make this switch, so once that happens, the market will be larger.

For this week’s class, we had to read a brief case study regarding Apple and its suppliers. We looked into Foxconn and Pegatron, both had issues regarding corporate social responsibility. Foxconn was put under scrutiny when news broke out about employees committing suicide. Apple would then move on to Pegatron, only for the same issues to arise. Both of these companies had poor and unsafe working conditions for their workers. This is pretty common across the industry as well. You go foreign and find suppliers in other countries because wages are cheaper. However, the tragic truth is that these workers are not getting paid enough and always working excessive hours. We debated in class whether companies like Apple should follow different ethical standards in other countries. I would think that it’ll be difficult to enforce a universal code of ethics across multiple countries, so Apple should just comply with the local rules. I do think that some of the practices are wrong and unethical, but it should be the government that makes these changes instead of a corporation.

For my internship, I was finally able to have a meeting with my boss. It has been three weeks since Mason and I last talked to her. We have been working on this social media outreach presentation for the last two weeks. We were excited to present our research and findings. During the presentation, I was quite nervous but ultimately got the points across and my boss liked our presentation. She did have some critiques but the overall reaction was positive. After the meeting, we hoped to invite her to lunch, but she was busy. That is one thing I noticed about my boss: she is always busy. Apparently, she has other jobs like modeling/being an actress. She also travels a lot and is always working on projects with collaborators.

This past weekend, I visited Naples and immediately noticed some differences compared to Milan. The traffic in Naples is more chaotic and there are fewer business-dressed people. Taking a taxi here was quite a heart-racing experience. I’m pretty sure the drivers here don’t follow the light signals. The best way to cross the street was to just have confidence and assume that cars will stop for you. The streets here are more lively and decorated. You could see clothes being dried out by the windows. The soccer team in Naples also just won a soccer league championship, so a lot of the streets had banners with the team colors on them.

 

This week in class we discussed the Apple case study and its potentially unethical working conditions from using oversea suppliers. The interesting part of this case is that it directly related to everyone as we all own an iPhone and the fact we are still using their products despite knowing the accusations against Apple can be seen as problematic. With this in mind, the ethical dilemma discussed was whether or not we should be able to hold the same ethical standards in different countries. While my initial answer was yes we should, after discussion, I’ve come to seen the difficulties of trying to apply what I consider ethical across so many different cultures. Even for a company like Apple, who has suppliers in many countries, just trying to hold them to certain conditions is very hard. Overall, this discussion has left me thinking more about how can we make an ethical standard that everyone in the world can hold.

 

At my internship at Tempocasa, we presented the our second project to our supervisor. This one was an analysis of their current workflows and recommendations for improvements. After carefully looking over the departments operations, we made a few recommendations we thought would be very helpful. The first one was to add an extra call if the selling process of the house takes a while. This was to prevent detractors if customers begin to feel impatient for the house not selling. The second recommendation was to start directly asking customers for reviews to boost the company’s image. While these were our main two, there were also a few smaller changes we recommended for quality of life.

 

This week started with the end of our Naples trip. Naples was such a great place to visit and I can honestly say that the pizza lives up to the hype. The best part of Naples was Pompeii, which was such a cool site to see. I would recommend anybody with the opportunity to visit Pompeii as it has been one of my favorite things to see in Italy so far. Back in Milan, after not having American food in a while, me and a couple others decided to go to Hamerica’s for a burger. While the food was pretty good, eating a burger after so long was really great. Now, since I have satisfied mt craving for American food, I am going to enjoy all the best Italian food the rest of this study abroad I can.

Internship:

This week we were invited to a kickoff event hosted at the Triennale Museum. This event serves to introduce the Casa Albini Project presented by Paola, the vice president of Fondaziones Franco Albini. Despite the whole presentation being in Italian and I could barely understand, I was able to get the main points that Paola was talking about. She introduced each of the three participants that will be working on the project. Each of them was from Politecnico Milano, a technical university here in Milan. Overall, the presentation was put together nicely. At the end of the presentation, Paola was delighted to see us. She will be stopping by the office next week for a presentation that Mason and I have been working on.

Class:

On Monday, we discussed the two statements released by the Business Roundtable, one in 1997 and the other in 2019. The question of the debate was whether the revised version was an empty rhetoric, or does will it bring change. The 2019 statement was a revision to address the stakeholders of the company and how they will change from focusing on the bottom line of shareholders. On Wednesday, we watched A Civil Action, a movie based on the real-life story of companies polluting the lake in Woburn, MA. I’m excited to hear about everyone’s thoughts and opinions on this movie next class period!

 

Culture Immersion:

On Saturday, I went to the archaeological city of Pompei. I didn’t know much about it except that a volcano erupted during the year 79 CE, destroying the city into ruins. What’s fascinating is how you can see how well the city was preserved. You can almost picture the different lives that the citizens of this city lived. There were streets of small houses for the ordinary, and then there were also enormous estates that housed wealthy families back then. Some of the houses had beautiful dining rooms, gardens, and courtyards. The whole time I felt like I was looking at a snapshot in history. When I see the casts of the ones who passed during this event, I can see what they were doing before their life was taken away. This place is definitely an underrated tourist attraction and I would highly recommend visiting Pompei.

Picking up from last week’s entry, on Sunday, Sara, Kat, Sachi, Lilly, Brian, Jimmy, Ian, Sylvia, Neave and I all traveled to Venice for the day. We didn’t go with any set plan in mind, but rather walked the streets and went into shops and restaurants that piqued our interest. I have always dreamed of going to Venice, and it was really a dream come true. The canals were beautiful, and it was fun to see the crowds at Saint Mark’s Basilica. My favorite part was just walking down little alleyways and side streets, as every turn we made brought a new picturesque view and a different vibe. Another highlight of the week was playing basketball against some other Aparto residents on Tuesday. It was fun to see how a sport like basketball can bring people together despite a language barrier/having a completely different life experience. This week, I discovered possibly my favorite pizza yet: Alice’s carbonara pizza. Alice is a chain, and after having their carbonara pizza once, I went back two other times to get it. I am looking forward to this weekend in which I will be traveling to Barcelona with some others.

This week at work, I really have gotten to know my boss Sergio. I can tell he is making an effort to include me and welcome me into their family-like office culture which I have greatly appreciated. On Wednesday, I went to lunch with the head technical director of the company, Mauro. Sergio and a client ended up coming to the same restaurant, so we moved to a larger table and all ate together. They asked me about what the universities were like in America, and about why I chose my specific major. On my way home that day, Sergio and I rode the metro together and talked about what AI will look like in the future. It was interesting to hear his take on the matter, and he said that the Italian government has talked about limiting these technological advancements. Before traveling to Italy, while I have never worked in an office environment before, I imagined it to be very individual and impersonal. When I think of an office, I think of everyone in their own cubicle focused on their own task. My view has since changed, as in this office, everyone works together, asks each other for help, meets regularly to discuss progress, and sits at one large table during the work day. I feel like I am gaining intercultural communication skills and learning how to express myself and my opinions in a clear manner understandable to those who may not speak English the best.

I really enjoyed our Monday and Wednesday classes this week. On Monday, I enjoyed hearing everyone’s take on the student loan forgiveness plan and discussing the expense associated with going to college and how that can be a barrier for many. The debate that followed regarding the business roundtable signed document was entertaining while also educational. I had not considered before that a document such as this, while it does not set specific goals, can at least start a conversation regarding ethical behavior. I like how this class has forced me to critically think as if I was a policy maker or corporation owner. With certain policies and commonly debated issues, I have had strong opinions and sometimes want to criticize business owners for their decisions. Now, I can see how most issues are not so black and white. I have learned that it is really easy to have an opinion as an outsider, but once you are the one making the decisions and have the potential to face major personal consequences it is not so easy. This kind ties into the movie, Civil Action, that we watched on Wednesday. In my opinion, the lawyer, Jan, did the honorable thing in seeing the trail all the way through, and fighting for justice. However, seeing the fallout of that decision proved that maybe his decision should not be respected, and he may have let his pride get the best of him. I am excited to talk further about this film in class, and would like to pose the question: Do you think Jan made an honorable decision in continuing to pursue the trial and try to take down the big corporations, or is this a case of one’s hubris getting the best of them?

This week in Italy I have done so many fun activities. To start at my internship at Tempocasa, me and Jon began working more on our presentation on the current workflow of the customer care division. We have outlined what we want to talk about and are now doing more research on what’s the best way to bring about interactions between customers and the company. One of the challenges in this project is that while we have a perspective from what we know, there is a cultural difference that we don’t want to offend by making decisions. With that in mind, we are carefully treading on Italian culture in a workplace and how we should rationalize some suggestions we are making. So far, we are making great progress and hope to finish this presentation up in the following week.

 

In class, I have learned so much more about corporate responsibility. In particular, this Monday we discussed a lot more on ESG and whether or not companies should care about stakeholders more or shareholders. There are great arguments for both sides of this case, and the approach the class took was on the Business Roundtable Statements made in 1997 and 2019. In the 1997 statement, it was clarified that shareholders are prioritized but stakeholders will still be aided such as employee training and increasing consumer value. In the 2019 statement, an emphasis on stakeholders was made and that the whole is more important than just focusing on the shareholders. Personally, I am conflicting in choosing a side currently as both slides of the argument made very good points. The discussions we have in class really help me to create dialogue on important subjects in the business world today.

 

This week, I traveled to both Florence and Naples. In both of these places I learned so much more about Italian culture. First in Florence, I was able to see the Statue of David and see all the other paintings in the museum. I found it very interesting to read up on the various paintings by Italian artists throughout history. David itself was impressive in its own right due to its sheer size and details. While I’ve seen many pictures of the statue itself, I thought seeing the real one lived up to the hype and I am so glad I got to see it. At the end of the night in Florence, I got to eat a famous Florentine steak. This steak was one of the best I ever had and I could see why it is world famous. In Naples, I got to visit Pompeii. Personally, I was looking forward to this the most of all the trips I went on so far because of the history this one village has. The buildings that were left standing, the amazing architecture, and finally just the atmosphere of the place is something I’ve never experienced. Overall, this was an amazing week to see all of Italy.

Corporate Social Responsibility:

This week, we watched a documentary that compared corporations to psychopaths and compared similar traits between the two. At first, I found it odd to name a corporation as a psychopath. However, we learned in class that the definition of a corporation can be a legal entity/person under the law. They can be personified, meaning that they have the rights of an individual and the amendments apply to corporations. After viewing the film, I wouldn’t view corporations as psychopaths, but rather just greedy. Yes, they want to make money and don’t account for the safety or well-being of the public, but deeming them psychopaths seems too far to me. It feels unfair because then would everyone working for the corporation be psychopaths?

Internship:

Mason and I continue to conduct research on increasing social media marketing strategy and how to drive profits. We created a presentation slide to highlight the different aspects of our upcoming project and its marketability of it. The purpose of the slides was to pitch this idea to potential investors. We also created a plan for our outreach phase. First, we would find other social media influencers/companies whose values and work align with ours. We would outreach to them on social media via direct message or email.  Through this collaboration of showcasing each other’s work, we can gain a better online presence and become more attractive to sponsors who could fund us. Additionally, we hope to reach out to The Bank of Sardinia, where our project, Casa Albini, is located.

Culture Immersion:

I was really able to dive into the sports culture of Italyas I visited San Siro Stadium to watch a game between AC Milan and Verona. My immediate reaction was how frenetic and energetic the fans are here. You would never be able to see this type of excitement in the united states unless it was a championship round. This game was the last regular season game for AC Milan. This game was also the one where Zlatan Ibrahimovic announced his retirement. What was really amazing is that the public didn’t know this was going to happen. He announced his retirement at the end of the game. Although I don’t know much about soccer, I have heard of Zlatan and knew he was one of the best to play the game.