2023 Lehigh-in-Milan with Professor Gupta

This week was a big week at Krein. Ian and I finished the project that we have been working on for weeks now. If you remember from last week, we were finishing up the research phase of our project and reaching out to potential clients and stakeholders. Well, this week we finished that list! With over 100 companies on the list, we emailed and surveyed each and every one of them. We are still waiting to hear back from some companies, but this closes the research part of our project. The next phase will be to continue interviewing, and solidify a few new clients. I’m not exactly sure what we will be doing next week, but I’m excited to find out. 

This week in Professor Gupta’s class, we once again had passionate debates. My favorite conversation was about AI and its impact on our generation. As students, we love the idea of having a machine to help us with homework and papers, but we have to ask ourselves how that affects our learning and understanding of material. I’m of the personal opinion that AI and tools such as ChatGPT are detrimental to our learning, but we should still learn how to use them. AI has already seeped into so many industries and soon enough we’re probably going to be told to use it. I loved hearing everyone’s opinion on the matter and I can’t wait to discuss the movie Erin Brockovich next week in class! 

Last weekend we visited my favorite city, Florence. Florence is just as vibrant and bustling as Milan, but it feels more like a classic Italian city to me. We spent the weekend visiting the Uffizi gallery, the Boboli Gardens, and climbing up the bell tower of the Florence Duomo. That was hard! My favorite part however, was watching the sunset in the Piazzale Michelangelo. The Piazzale overlooked the whole city, the sun set right over the water and behind Ponte Vecchio. There were thousands of people watching this sunset and everyone cheered when the sun went below the horizon. Florence has definitely been my favorite place so far and it is a must see for everyone traveling to Italy. 

 

View from Piazzale Michelangelo.

All the people watching the sunset!

View of Florence from the top of the tower.

Jimmy, Bryan, and I met up with a friend from Lehigh.

Internship: This week I got a new task that I will do until the end of my internship. Fin+Tech has a new client call Lagardere Travel Retail which is a massive international vending machine company. They are looking for start-ups to help scale their business and implement new and innovative technology. My colleagues did the scouting for the company and my job is to deep dive further the 19 companies that they are interested in. I am responsible for preparing presentations for each of these start ups on information such as product/service description, features, value added, funding, costs, revenues, scoping match, status, current patents, etc.. The way I find this information is through the company website, crunchbase, LinkedIn, and google.

 

Class: In class this week we discussed a lot about corporations responsibility for labor rights and environmental impacts. On Wednesday we discussed and debated about the article on the Apple Case Study and their allegations about labor rights violations with their offshore suppliers at Foxconn and others. In my group, we discussed a lot about whether or not that Apple should be responsible for these labor rights issues, even though their suppliers are in a different company and are not legally employed by Apple. We largely sided with the fact that they are responsible because they are still condoning and furthering the labor violations by knowing that it is happening and still working with these companies while demanding small margins. In the same class, we also watched the article about the small town in Brazil called Barcarena which is located near the Amazon river. Due to its location near the Amazon which is rich of the materials to make aluminum, the town is severely contaminated with toxic chemicals. The company near the town that produces alumina denies all allegations. I think it is crazy that they can deny these allegations due to all of the evidence from the tests from the citizens of the town that show the toxic chemicals inside of them.

 

Exploring: On the weekend, Ava, Bella, Emily, and I flew to Paris. When we arrived very late Friday night, our hostel had lost our reservation, so they had to find a different available room for us. The room also did not end up having air conditioning, so we were sweating all night. On Saturday, we walked to a café and got brunch, and then went to the Lourve. We spent nearly four hours in Lourve, and then we went to Angelina’s to get hot chocolate. We then went home and took cold showers and got ready for dinner. We ended the day by watching the Eiffel Tower sparkle at night. Because of the marathon that day, it took almost an hour to get home. The next day at our last day in Paris, we went to Cedric Grodlet’s bakery and went to the famous starbucks for coffee. Then we went to the Sac ru cor and the arc de triumph. We ended the day by getting Chipotle and then made our way to the airport. Our flight was delayed two hours but we ended up getting home around 1am. The rest of the week I spent in my free time going to the gym, making food, and some of us hung out downstairs outside on Wednesday night.

 

This week, we had our corporate social responsibility course with Professor Gupta on Monday and Wednesday. On Monday, we began by discussing Sam Rosen and Bella’s Wall Street Journal articles. Sam’s was about the role that Goldman Sachs’s played in Silicon Valley Bank’s final days. Bella’s was about Virginia Tech’s bias response team and how it relates to the first amendment. After this discussion, we broke up into groups and filled out the in-class group worksheet on “The Civil Action”, which we watched last week. We then came back together and discussed the movie and these questions. We first discussed Lilli’s and my Wall Street Journal articles in class on Wednesday. Lilli’s article was about how Netflix subscriptions jumped as their U.S. password-sharing crackdown began. Mine looked at the “awkward” partnership between Microsoft and OpenAI. After this, we watched a video about the harmful aluminum mining in the Amazon rainforest. We then split up into groups and discussed questions about the Apple case study, then came back and 2 groups debated whether or not Apple should have the same working standards globally or if they should be different.

This week for my internship, my boss was out of the office on a business trip so Sachi and I worked remotely. Although we were remote, we still got a good amount of work done and new content made. Since we filmed lots of videos last week, this week we edited and added voiceovers and/or music to the videos from last week. We had to send them over to our sponsor for approval to post the completed videos and he will get back to us on them. So, we hope that next week we get final approval from our sponsor and the main South Garage owner and can begin posting the videos that we created. I think this whole process of making videos is taking a bit longer than it should, but our sponsor wants to see each of our videos before posting them, and tell us if anything needs to be changed, which does make sense. However, I think we had another productive week and I feel like my time is flying by!

This week I was again able to travel mostly on the weekends, but I had a great time when I did travel. On Sunday, it was our last day in Naples so we walked around the city and saw the ocean, went shopping, and got food. During the week I did not do much traveling except for going to Chinatown, Milan on Monday after Professor Gupta’s class. We went to a hot pot restaurant and the food was great! After dinner, we got bubble tea which was also tasty. It was a different experience for me in Chinatown, especially at the restaurant because most Chinese restaurants I have been to have many different ethnicities of people there, but in this restaurant I was one of the only people there who was not of Asian ethnicity. I did however enjoy this cultural immersion and had a great dinner there. Finally, on Friday I did some shopping in Milan and bought some clothing. Overall, I had another exciting week of travel and I am glad I have been able to travel so much!

This week during Monday’s class we discussed the fall of SVB Securities. Sam went in depth on the WSJ story that he read and Professor Gupta broke down how the bank failed in simple terms. I have been keeping up with this story so it was interesting to me to hear about the bank in a classroom setting. After this, we broke up into our groups and we went over thought provoking questions on the film A Civil Action. We discussed who should be responsible for paying for the prosecuting team’s research against the defending company. Some students thought that the EPA or other government agencies should help subsidize the research, but I disagree. In the eyes of the law I feel as though this would give the prosecution an unfair advantage over the defendant. I believe that the prosecuting law firm should bear the initial costs of research.

During my internship this week I worked on a number of market research projects. I also worked with a team to analyze potential candidates for a job opening for a company that we consult for. This was a very interesting project as it allowed me to look through hundreds of people and choose the candidates that I thought would fit the job description best. Again this week all of the interns went to our bosses house and he cooked us lunch. This week we had three different types of ravioli. This was a very good meal and we talked about my boss’s upcoming trip to the United States. This led us to a conversation about the cultural differences between the US and Italy.

This past weekend I visited Florence with Bryan, Jon and Sylvia. This was an unbelievable trip and Florence was by far the best city that I have visited on this trip. We visited iconic locations such as the Uffizi Gallery, Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore and the Baptistry of St. John, the Bell Tower, the Duomo Museum and the Boboli Gardens. These were all breathtaking experiences and provided unmatched views. We also went to dinner with Professor Gupta at a steakhouse. Dinner was great and we talked about the class, social topics and about our future careers. Florence was much different than Milan as it felt like a small town rather than a city. Milan on the other hand is a large city with very industrial and residential areas, as well as skyscrapers. The tallest buildings in Florence were churches. 

The Florence Duomo

The beautiful sunset from Piazzale Michelangelo in Florence

The view of Florence from the top of the Bell Tower after climbing 414 Steps. Lehigh prepared me well!

This past weekend Emily, Sophia, Ava, and I went to Paris to walk around the city. We each had different things we wanted to see so we really got a lay of the land visiting each monument. Our first day we went to the Louvre and got lost in there for about 3 and a half hours as each exit sign led us to another exhibit. I was so excited to see art pieces I had studied in high school in AP Art History and led us around with my notes from the class. It was really interesting to read the stories and details put into each of the sculptures and paintings. After the Louvre we got in line for the iconic hot chocolate from Café Angelina. It was so rich I almost did not finish it. That night we went to dinner and then to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle. Because it was the last time it sparkled for the night, as soon as the lights went the sprinklers turned on and everyone was scrambling to not get wet. It was like a scene from a movie. The second day we walked to Cedric Grolet Opera, another iconic bakery for breakfast. Emily and I split a huge orange blossom cream filled cake and then just for fun we went to the Starbucks that has fresco painted ceilings and walls. We walked off our pastries on the way to Sacre Cœur Basilica as it was a steep incline which Lehigh’s South Mountain campus prepared us for. The markets and shops around that area smelled so good that it was hard to keep walking past. The basilica looked like a small Tajh Mahal and had a overlook of the entire city. We then ventured to the Arc de Triomphe and debated whether to skip the line and just run across the largest roundabout in Europe but ended up walking back to our hostel along the Seine River. The vendors sold Art Nouveau posters and old books and I ended up buying at least one at each stall.

This week in class we recapped the movie we watched last class about a lawsuit. We discussed some questions about what more could have been done in the case’s situation with corporate social responsibility and ESG. One assignment was to read a case study on Apple’s CSR and having a group debate on what Apple could change about working conditions in their suppliers’ factories. One side took the point that Apple should have different standards for each country they are manufacturing in and the other was to have standard conditions across the board for all of the different countries. It was interesting to see the pros and cons of both sides and what could be done to change these conditions.

At Giuba 80 this week, I was tasked with inputting more TPIs on the excel sheet for Prénatal, which are the tactical sheets for each item of clothing in the collection. I took detailed catalog pictures of new autobody shop jumpsuits and jackets for Magneti Marelli. I packaged those into a parcel, as well as some medical masks for a dentist nearby from leftover COVID inventory. I also was taught the bookkeeping process for the upcoming winter season of children’s clothes and added some items to the collection. After work I had lunch with my coworker, Michela, at a local café and walked in a park nearby. She recommended a very nice bakery near the Duomo by Iginio Massari and I could not believe I passed it up twice a day. I pass through Piazza del Duomo to and from work so Emily and I decided to try it on our way home and met in the metro. We also ran into Professor Gupta who was shopping for mangoes, and he joined us on our journey to try some of the candies the bakery makes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week at South Garage, Will and I continued filming and editing Tik Toks. These Tik Toks are getting more and more specific as the weeks go on. Will is very into fashion and knows a lot about selvage denim. He was able to write a fantastic script for our boss to read and to do a voice-over in Italian with. I wrote a script about the Red Wing shoe industry and the background on them. We want our customers to understand how special the pieces of clothing are at South Garage. Will and I started brainstorming ideas for Sotuh Garage to use for their new membership club. I think it was really interesting to see our perspective on how we can improve their membership club versus South Garages’ perspective. In America, we have many membership clubs, such as Soho House, so we were able to use that for reference, while South Garage does not have many membership clubs to base their ideas on as they are not as popular in Italy.

 

This week in Professor Gupta’s class, we had many interesting discussions. Last week we watched a movie called A Civil Action. This movie was very eye-opening for me as I never understood the specifics surrounding civil court cases. I had no idea how much private law firms invested in cases out of their own pockets. It was also interesting to see how these large corporate companies are so unsympathetic toward its customers. In Monday’s class, we went through a series of questions that Professor Gupta provided for us. These questions brought up the discussion of whistleblowing. Professor Gupta asked the class whether or not we would Whistleblow if we knew our company was doing something wrong. I shared my answer with the class, which was no, I would never whistle blow, no matter the circumstances. This is because whistleblowing will ruin a person’s chances of working with another company again. While it is not impossible to get another job, Professor Gupta backed up my argument by describing what happened to his own friend, who was a whistle-blower. She makes an income now, describing her experience with whistleblowing, but she has never been hired again.

 

Last week, I traveled to Barcelona, Spain. I had never been to Spain before, so I was so excited to experience a new country and culture. Since we were only there from Friday night to Sunday night, we had a packed schedule. I stayed in a hostel for the first time, which was much better than I expected. It was really nice and felt very clean. The first night, we went to an amazing Tapas restaurant for dinner. We randomly found this restaurant, and I think it was the best food I have had this whole trip. We shared Sangria,] and my favorite dish was a truffle Spanish omelet. The next day, we woke up early and explored the city. We had an amazing brunch at Brunch & Cake. I had the best matcha latte I have ever had. We roamed the city and then had an aperativo all together. Sam and I had Aperol spritzes. Later that night, I had seafood paella for dinner, along with another Aperol spritz. Later that night, we saw DJ John Summit perform at a club called Pacha. It was so cool to listen to such an amazing artist live. The next morning, we had brunch and then went on a boat for the day. Before our flight, we went to Honest Greens, which had such fresh food. Our flight got delayed, and we ended up getting back to Milan at 5 a.m. Although I was so tired on Monday morning, I have no regrets about packing so many activities into one weekend.

Class:

This week in class we discussed the movie on Monday and … on Wednesday. We had a full class discussion about corporations and how they played a role in the movie and also real life. This discussion was very interesting as we discussed how common it is for corporations to conduct business that could harm the public without reservation for the damage they might be causing. This was further hammered into my head while reading the article about the working conditions of the suppliers Apple uses after they said they would look into them after a string of suicides at one of the factories of their suppliers.

Internship:

I had an interesting week, my boss is vacationing to the US in August and was applying for a visa. First, I didn’t know that a visa was required to vacation to the US for less than 90 days, I also learned how hard it can be to travel to the US. For example, the really easy Visa to get, ESTA, takes a day or two but has some restrictions. If you’ve traveled to a list of countries since 2011 you are ineligible for the specific type of Visa. Iran is one of those countries which is also a very popular tourist destination for Italians, hence more than half of my office having traveled there and thus being ineligible. I spent my entire Tuesday helping my boss navigate US government websites, figuring out how to schedule an appointment with the embassy, and helping her fill out visa applications which were largely in English. She was very appreciative but I didn’t know that traveling to the US was such a chore.

Culture:

I went to Florence this weekend and had the best time ever. Friday during the day we went to the Uffizi gallery, the Duomo bell tower, Duomo Baptistry, and the Plaza de Michelangelo.  Friday night we met up with Professor Gupta in Florence for dinner. I then met up with a really good friend from high school, and a student from Lehigh who grew up in Italy and the UK that is in my fraternity. We all got drinks together and I was very appreciative of both friends showing me around and having a good time. On Saturday we went inside the Duomo Cathedral which was breathtaking, just looking up at the mural on the ceiling for too long made me dizzy, we also went to the Boboli Garden where we laid in the grass and I think I fell asleep, being around that much green for the first time in a few weeks made me feel at home.

 

The mural on the dome of the inside of the Florence Duomo

The steak I got at dinner in Florence, it was amazing!

One of the many statues we saw at the Uffizi gallery, the detail in the statues from this age is astounding!

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.