This week we did attend in person class, but rather we were assigned to watch “Erin Brockovich” as well as finish our final projects with our groups. I found the movie very interesting and enjoyed the storyline and dedication of Erin. It shows that there are people who are willing to go the distance to do right, no matter the cost. This movie was similar to “A Civil Action”, but I feel that the difference between these movies are in the personality of the main characters and that Erin didn’t really have anything o prove other than doing the right thing whereas the protagonist of A Civil Action had a large ego he had to combat. These movies were similar in the overarching issue, but handled different ways. I also enjoyed finishing up my final project and ensuring everything was ready to go for presentations.

For my internship this week I went back to previous assignments and redefined certain aspects and found meta data for all of the positions. I then went on to help reorganize data from a Covid survey given to Italian citizens to help prepare the day to be put in coding systems to look at correlations between answers. I also have begun drafting a proposal for how to incorporate the use of a microscope for digital devices in pollution collection. This proposal will go into a pollution program that is active in Southern California and be used to look at micro plastics in the water surrounding where pollutants are found on the beaches in Southern California. I am excited to finish up these tasks this upcoming week as I conclude my experience here.

This past weekend almost the entire group took a trip to Florence to stay together and have on last weekend together before we all venture home this upcoming week. This was a fun way to end this experience having us all together for one last weekend reminiscing on our experience. We enjoyed staying together in a villa for Friday and Saturday and then Sunday we ventured into Florence and enjoyed the city. I had never been to Florence before so it was fun to walk around the city and see the difference in architecture to Milan. Unfortunately since it was Sunday a lot of stores were closed, but I still enjoyed the city and the different stores we stopped into. We had a group dinner at a great restaurant and then ventured home to have our last week in Milan.

1. Academics

This week we did not have an in-person class, but we did have to watch the movie “Erin Brockovich” and also work on our final projects with our group members. I really enjoyed the movie that we watched, and I think it showed a perspective of someone doing the right thing regardless of the financial burden or the repercussions that may be faced. In comparison to the other movie we watched, “A Civil Action” this a very different outcome. I feel like in the previous movie, we saw the perspective that ego can ruin everything, but also sometimes doing the right thing or fighting for the right thing does not guarantee you anything. In this movie, we saw the opposite perspective and it showed the viewpoint that doing the right thing regardless of the potential outcome is the right thing to do. I think it is important to see this story because in my opinion there is a right or wrong, and PG&E ignoring the health effects was 100% wrong and there needed to be action. Erin Brockovich could have lost everything, but she fought for these people who were underrepresented and taken advantage of. It is a reminder that I hope I always do what’s right even if its hard. I never want to get to the point where I am so focused on money and “winning” that I forget the bigger picture.

 

2. Internship

This week at work was similar to the past weeks. I have my daily routine, which includes “Front Office” assignments. I check all the messages, answer any questions, and provide all the necessary documentation before a stay. However, since Lucia got back from vacation this week, we also had to present our projects that we have been working on. We had not really gotten a lot of guidance on what we were supposed to do, so it was both nice and nerve-racking to share what we had done. We were on the right track for the assignment, but Lucia was able to give us more detailed guidelines and as soon as she did that, the project was exactly how she wanted. It was just a reminder that while American and Italian work environments and methods may be different, we were able to take aspects of both and get the assignment done. Also, this week we had the networking event. My favorite part of the night was my boss meeting some of the Lehigh people and vice versa. Everyone seemed to get along and have really nice conversations. Not to mention, the next day Lucia told me that she “really liked everyone and everyone was so thoughtful.” It was really nice to make these connections and see world’s collide.

 

3. Travel

Last weekend, I was in Rome with Caroline and Arianna, which was so much fun. I think Rome may be my favorite food location. I had the best carbonara since being here. We visited the Vatican and then on Sunday saw the Colosseum. It has been one of my favorite locations I have visited on the trip. I wish I was there for longer.

Then, this weekend, 22 of us rented a villa in Tuscany. It was a special weekend, spending time with everyone on our last weekend trip. We accidentally bought way too much cereal and ate all of it. There was a lot of cooking and a lot of laughs. It is funny to think I barely knew anyone before coming on this trip, and it is really nice to see how we now all have this special bond. As this is the end of our last full week in Italy, I really am grateful for this experience and opening my circle. We all come from our own bubbles at school, but I think having this experience opened new perspectives that would never have been possible if we did not come to Italy together for 6 weeks.

 

 

Caroline and I in Rome

 

The Colosseum

In Tuscany this past weekend.

This week at my internship was very similar to last week in terms of tasks. I have continued working on deep diving the start up companies for LTR vending machines. I finished this task by Friday and completed the entire two-pager presentations for each of the 19 companies I had to research further. Because my boss had to attend meetings in Venice this week from Wednesday until Friday, I only was in person at work on Tuesday, every other day I had remote work. On Tuesday, there happened to be a lot of people come to the office, and because there are only six desks, Caroline and I had to relocate to another part of the building. It ended up working out great because we got to sit at a table right in front of the air conditioning, which was very nice since it was over 90 degrees that day.

 

My week started off great because I spent the weekend from June 23^rd until June 25^th in Monopoli, Puglia with Emily, Tiffany, Ava, and Bella. We had a very relaxing beach day on Saturday and we spent the day on Sunday exploring the city which is breathtakingly beautiful. On Monday, I tried playing basketball with some of the others outside. It was very hot and I am not very good at basketball, so I felt bad for who was on my team. But it was a lot of fun and a great workout, especially considering it was over 90 degrees when we were playing with the sun beating down. Wednesday and Thursday were very chill days after work as I mostly just read my book, went to the gym, and caught up on work.

 

While we did not have class this week on Monday and Wednesday, Arianna and I ended up watching the Erin Brokovich movie together on Monday in Aparto. It was a really interesting movie and I was not expecting to be as intrigued with it as I was. I think that Julia Roberts played Erin Brokovich’s character very well: she was able to pull off the personality of a determined women, but who comes off very off-putting and wild to others, particularly at her workplace. On Tuesday, as credit for our internship class, we had the networking event from 7-9pm. I was happy that my boss ended up coming, and he stayed for a lot longer than I was expecting he was going to be able to which was great. I had great conversations with Raquel, who is a law consultant, as well as with Alessia, who works for IES. Finally, on Thursday in our internship course we all presented our final presentation. Mine was with Bryan, Lili, Le, and Bella and we discussed the pros and cons of Italian sustainability.

 

We did not meet in person for class this week and were instead assigned to watch the Erin Brockovich Movie. I enjoyed watching this film as it strongly correlates with the theme of corporate social responsibility we have discussed throughout our time in Italy. PG&E had a responsibility to the community and the environment; however, they neglected this responsibility by not addressing the contamination issue and instead protecting their profits. Erin Brockovich, on the other hand, took it upon herself to fight for justice and hold PG&E accountable for their actions. She wanted to ensure that the company would take responsibility for the harm it caused to the community. 

My head boss at Gen-USA traveled to the United States in order to attend business conferences this week. I was assigned a research project on Cross-Cultural HR Management to complete virtually. It was interesting to research this topic and help the company prepare to effectively transition Italian companies into the United States. Although we did not go into the office to work this week, Jimmy, Sam, and I met 2 other interns and another colleague and his friend for lunch. We went to the restaurant Pizza e Mozzarella and it was delicious! It was definitely sad to say goodbye to the other interns and employees, but I am so beyond thankful for my time at Gen-USA!

This weekend 22 of us traveled to Tuscany where we stayed in a remote villa for 2 nights. When we first arrived at the train station, everything quickly turned into a scramble because we realized that the villa was much farther and secluded than anticipated. We split up and a group of us went grocery shopping and then taxied to the villa. Once we arrived at the villa the weekend sped by. We spent most of our time outside by the pool and on a beautiful patio overlooking the countryside. After spending Friday and Saturday in the countryside, we traveled to Florence for the day. To finish off our perfect weekend, we all got dinner at a delicious restaurant and then journeyed home to Milan for our last few days. 

Cultural Immersion: I began our last full week in in Rome exploring the Colosseum, the Forum, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. That was the most walking I’ve ever done, but the sights made it worth it. Rome is such a beautiful city, rich with Italian culture and history. I’ve had the best food yet in Rome, especially carbonara – famous to the city!  Some of my favorite places to eat in Milan are Roman pasta restaurants like one I went to on the Navigli for lunch this past week. I really am going to miss this time I’ve spent in Italy and am glad I get to spend our last few days here in Tuscany and Florence with all of my classmates.

 

Class on CSR: This week we viewed the film Erin Brockovoch, which followed the life of a single mother of three looking for a job when her stubbornness earned her a position in a law firm filing. Her inquisitive and persistent mindset pushed her to look into a particular file that led to a major multi-million dollar lawsuit against a utility company for contaminating the drinking water of local residents for years. These residents were subject to many varying life threatening illnesses. Viewing this film encompassed our discussions these past six weeks on the responsibility that corporations need to take to protect its stakeholders. Ultimately the utility company in the film failed its community and paid for the consequences. CSR leads to long-term profitability that all companies should recognize and fully have implemented to combat these types of issues

 

Internship: I continued contacting potential European angel investors this week in my internship, while tracking the response rates in an excel file. I coded different cells to understand how many investors I contacted actually connected and responses to me . I then also was able to code the data to see the response rates by country. It is interesting to see how these rates differ and also develop some excel skills I hadn’t known before. I also continued the research on vending solutions for a retail company organizing all their data in a presentation to be shown to a corporate partner. I have really enjoyed seeing all of the innovate startups in Italy and around the world, while meeting some really amazing people!

 

For Gupta’s class this week, we had no in-person sessions, but we were encouraged to utilize the time to watch Erin Brockovich and work on our final project. The movie follows a case involving Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and their role in the contamination of Hinkley’s water system. Similar to Civil Action, the small private firm in the film takes up the case, despite being up against a large corporation like PG&E. Erin’s commitment to bringing justice to the families that were medically compromised due to the water is the reason why the case goes to trial. She does everything in her power to show that the people of Hinkley were worth fighting for. While devoting most of her day to the case, she also does her best to support her three children as a single mother.

With less than one week left in my internship, I have been helping my team wrap up some of their projects. Since one of our bosses is out on vacation, I had the chance to fill in at meetings where they review daily tasks and upcoming projects. One of the main tasks assigned to me was to complete the final round of review for the surveys to be sent out to participants. The survey is a sustainability project that the company Tetra Pak wants to release. Monday should be the first day of the field study and I hope that I have the chance to see the results before I leave. Having to sort through excel files translated in dozens of languages requires a lot of time and attention to detail to ensure accurate study results. One of the lessons that I will take away from this internship will be the importance of organization and precision.

This weekend will be the most exciting trip yet! On such short notice, twenty-two of us packed our bags and made our way to Tuscany. Once we reached our beautiful villa, it was time to socialize by the pool. For dinner, we had many helping hands in the kitchen to make pasta, chicken, and meatballs. It was nice to sit around the table with everyone to mark our last weekend in Italy. Throughout the night, we danced around to very loud music that most likely woke up the neighbors. In the morning, a round of eggs and sausages were passed around the table for breakfast. Almost immediately after, we all jumped back into the pool and laid out under the sun. My expectation for tonight is for all of us to watch the sunset and blast some more tunes. I am glad that we have all gotten so close and were able to celebrate the end of our study abroad program altogether!

 

Internship: This week at my internship, my company had a big event centered around fundraising in the third sector. I spent the entire day helping my company rearrange the office, set up chairs and supplies, and practice their portions of the speeches. I sat with one of my coworkers while she practiced her entire portion of the talk. While I couldn’t understand anything she was saying she was grateful. I also worked on the monthly press review my company puts out that contains a slew of articles related to ESG, B Corps, sustainability, etc. I enjoyed this as I was able to read articles from the WSJ, Financial Times, and even some European news outlets that I wouldn’t normally have read.

 

Class: This week in virtual class we watched Erin Brockovich a film starring Julia Roberts about companies dumping waste. When I originally told my office about watching A Civil Action they all thought I was talking about Erin Brockovich which is apparently a very popular movie not only with my company but my coworkers said it’s popular among a lot of Italy. I also had time to work on my research paper with my group, I found some of the research I did to be very interesting, such as Elon Musk releasing files that proved that Twitter censored information that was “contrarian but true” because it didn’t fit the narrative of the White House.

 

Culture: For our last weekend the entire group got an Airbnb in the Tuscan countryside. It was a 20 minute ride outside of Florence and 22 of us were able to make it and it was so much fun. We bought a bunch of food and cooked dinner both nights and relaxed all weekend. On Sunday we spent the day in Florence wandering around and seeing the city for the last time on this trip. I was able to find a jeweler who was able to fix my silver necklace and he did it for free. I bought a nicely painted bottle of meloncello and a charcuterie board made out of olive wood for my parents. 

My necklace that my dad got in Florence 30 years ago and gave to me  broke so I brought it back to Florence and was able to get it fixed

I love ramen and miss having it back home so I went with some people this week to get some

The before shot of the 1.2 kg steak I got in Florence

The after shot…

This week during class we had no physical, in-person class. During one of the class periods we were expected to watch the movie Erin Brockovich and our second class was canceled because we had a Friday field trip earlier in the summer. The movie Erin Brockovich was very interesting and thought provoking. The film was about a model turned law professional who gets involved in a $30+ million water contamination case. Brockovich initially took the job to earn enough money to pay her bills, but she quickly became interested and emotionally attached to the water contamination case of PG&E. Brockovich traveled daily to look for records or to meet with victims who consumed the contaminated water. Brockovich ended up winning the case and PG&E was forced to pay the victims and clean up the contaminated water. After watching the film, I answered a number of questions regarding CSR and how it related to the documentary.

 

This week during my internship my boss traveled to the United States to meet with clients so we were virtual for the week. I was assigned a week-long market research project about a topic that we discussed in our internship seminar class. Unfortunately last week’s “cooking class” was the final one of my trip to Italy with my boss. I am disappointed because that was a great time to bond with my coworkers and learn more about Italian culture and cuisine. To make up for no more cooking classes or lunches together, my coworker took the six interns out to lunch at my favorite pizza place Pizza e Mozzarella. This was a great experience and provided me with time to talk to my fellow interns and coworker. Hopefully next week we can do something similar.

 

Over the weekend I decided to finally stay in Milan for the whole time. I visited the Milan Duomo with my friends Bryan and Sam and we went to a nice (but expensive) brunch with a view of the Duomo. The Duomo was stunning and provided great views of the City of Milan. Once inside, we walked around and took in the breathtaking architecture. My favorite aspect of the Duomo was the stained glass windows. Every window in the Duomo was stained glass and each one had a unique design. When we got back from visiting the Duomo we looked into planning our final weekend in Italy: a group trip to a Tuscan villa. Luckily we found an Airbnb that was able to fit all 22 students that were interested in the trip.

 

A Lego replica of the Milan Duomo

The stunning stained glass windows inside of the Milan Duomo

Me and my coworkers at my favorite pizza place: Pizza & Mozzarella

 

This week, during my Internship at South Garage, we launched our TikTok! It was very exciting because we had been working on this project for a while. We launched two accounts, one for the bistro and one for South Garage’s other businesses, the custom motorcycle shop and boutique. The bistros videos featured the chef. The video is high quality because our coworker Matei brought his professional camera to Italy. It did not shock me when this video did well on Tik Tok because it looked exactly like the professional food videos I see all over the internet. The boutiques Tik Toks also did well. We posted one video that was an overview of the whole boutique and another video showing various pieces of clothing styled on Will as the model. The outfits we picked were very cool and high-end. We tagged multiple brands to increase our online interactions and used many hashtags. We also started working on the newsletter. We helped our boss translate his Italian version into an English version, as he wants the newsletter to be in both languages. It was overall a very successful week of work, and we are very happy with our success!

 

Our Corporate Social Responsibility class was canceled this week. Professor Gupta was generous enough to give us this week to used our free time to work on our final papers and presentations. My group was able to outline our paper and complete it using what would typically be our class time. We also had an assignment to watch the movie, Erin Brockovich. It was a really good movie, and I enjoyed watching it a lot as it related a lot to what we are talking about in class. Professor Gupta also gave us a series of questions to answer after the movie, which I found useful because I was able to look at them before to get an idea of what the movie would be about. This assignment was perfect because it was not super time-consuming so I worked a lot on my final project. Mason, Ava, Lili, and I have been very good about communicating about our project in a group chat, and we split up the paper in a very fair way. I was nervous about this paper at first because it seemed very daunting, but once I started working on it I realized that it is not as bad as it seems. As soon as I found my sources and started writing, my portions of the paper were completed before I knew it!

 

Last weekend we took a girls’ trip! Maddy, Lili, Sarah, Sylvia, Neave, Kat, and I traveled to Portofino. It was a very last-minute trip. Last weekend, we were initially going to go on a day trip to Lake Garda on Friday, stay put in Milan on Saturday, and go to the beach on Sunday. When we arrived at Centrale early Friday morning, we were all shocked to see that our train, along with multiple others. As it turns out, there was a strike going on, and as a result, many trains were canceled. At first, we were bummed, but we made the most of our day. We all went to brunch together, and then we booked our weekend trip. We went out to dinner and had amazing pasta. We ate at La Osteria Di Fortuna. It was so cool because we could see a woman inside through the window making homemade pasta. The next day, we took a train to Santa Margherita. We found a beach club and stayed there for the day. Later at night, we trained into Rapalo and checked into our AirBnB. We had an amazing dinner and roamed the streets of Rapolo until late at night. It did not feel touristy at all, which was also amazing. The next day, we traveled back to Santa Margherita and spent the day at the beach. The water was so blue! Overall, it was a very spontaneous and fun weekend!

Last weekend Ava, Sophia, Emily, Tiffany, and I ventured to Monopoli in the Puglia region of the heel of the boot of Italy. We stayed in a gorgeous stone Airbnb in the center of the town. We first arrived past midnight, so we did not think much of the night life, but nearing our apartment there were crowds of people eating and walking around the main square. The first morning we grabbed breakfast and some fruit from a produce shop for the beach. I got a carton of cherries and Emily got some peaches. The man was nice enough to wash the fruit for us and we snacked on the way to the beach nearby. The beaches were sand, rock, and grass. We swam out to the sandbar and watched people cliff jump. Sophia, Emily, and I ventured to the beach with the cliff and got nervous as it was higher than it seemed. We jumped a bunch until I tried to climb back up and fell back almost taking the man behind me in the water with me. After I swam back to the beach, Emily told me he went up to her when she was looking for me and said “sta bene” meaning I was fine and then reenacted me stumbling back while explaining in Italian. We went back to get ready for dinner and ate at this place called Apluvia with local food. It was so nice and the food was awesome. We got octopus, lobster, and cuttlefish and laughed as Sophia tried to crack the lobster claw and it shot across the table. Afterwards we all walked around the town, got gelato, and explored. The next day we walked around and shopped. It was a little cooler from the salty wind so not really a beach day. We saw a man painting by his shop and the streets were so narrow that we had to go into his shop for the car coming. He started to explain all of his paintings in Italian. I was able to translate some from my high school Italian class, but it was pretty self-explanatory with the paintings in front of us. His name was Gianni Comes and he used to be a fisherman as a Monopoli native. He used fishing nets, fishing jackets, jeans, and wood from the boats as canvases. He then ran around to shut off the lights except for one and put the fishing jacket canvas in front of it. The light glowed through the negative space in the paint, it was gorgeous. All of us were so blown away. He let us feel the paintings textured with fishing nets and other equipment and explained his theme of the “due amore” (two loves) and life. There would be two people or two sailboats and then life of the flowers, trees, and the city of Monopoli. Each of them was so detailed and beautiful. We all bought little ones from the wood from the fishing boats and he wrote messages about each of the paintings on the back. That was truly a highlight of our visit and really showed what beauty comes from Monopoli. We ate lunch on a rooftop for a view of the sea and ate more delicious seafood this time scallops, redfish, and more octopus. We then caught our flight home all exclaiming how Monopoli would be a place to visit again.

 

With this being our last full week, I am trying to explore all of the things I have not yet. Monday Emily and I climbed the stairs to the Duomo terrace which was gorgeous. I pass it twice a day and had not been inside yet. The interior was colossal. The stained glass was so colorful and contrasting against the gothic architecture. We also got to see the archeological area underneath which used to be a baptismal font covered in mosaics. Another place I have been meaning to go to is directly behind Aparto. It is a car themed restaurant called Officina that used to be an autobody shop and the atmosphere was very cool with framed pictures, vintage mirrors, and car signs covering the walls. The food was so delicious I got cacio e pepe which I had been craving for some time as it is not as popular in Milan being a Roman dish. For our last weekend we rented a villa outside of Florence that fit the whole group. It was so much fun to relax by the pool and play games with everyone all weekend. The view was so vast overlooking the Tuscan vineyards.

This week we did not have class as we were given more time to work on our final project. One homework assignment was to watch Erin Brockovich and discuss the movie questions in a group setting. The movie was similar to A Civil Action where it was a true story about small town’s groundwater being contaminated by a nearby plant. This time it was a huge gas and electric corporation instead of a local tannery and the main character was not a lawyer but needed a job and investigated the case and decided it was moral to fight back.

At Giuba 80 this week I had one of my friends model some polos for the Amazon storefront and I organized prices and TPIs for bookkeeping as this season’s book was becoming full. Tuesday we had a networking event in which my boss and coworker came to and spoke to some of my other friends and their colleagues. It was a fun time getting to hear about what everyone did for the month at their internships and what they thought about working international versus back at home. My coworker wanted to show me a few things before I left so we went to a horse race with her parents who go all of the time. It was so fun as I jump horses for the Lehigh Club Equestrian Team but have never been to a race which is a very different experience. The first race we bet 3 euros on a horse named Moorland Spirit to come in first. He was close in second and pushed for first when crossing the finish line. We won 7.50 euros! The second and third races were excellent as it was fun to go to something casual in the area. She then took me for lunch to City Life which was the most relaxed city looking place I have ever been in. Even inside the mall was not really crowded. I will miss my coworker and boss and plan to keep in touch and to meet up if I ever come to visit Italy again. They have given me great advice over this month and great places to come back to.