As an environmental studies major, I am excited to address the question concerning whether corporations should prioritize shareholders or stakeholders. I hope to get a perspective through discussion that is very different from my own to see why people would prefer to focus more on shareholders. Another expectation I have for this class is that I hope it can help me improve my skills in presenting and speaking in front of my peers. Typically I struggle with participating in class, but with that being such an important aspect for success, I know I will force myself to be more involved with class discussion, overall helping improve this aspect in the long run.

Applying for future jobs and internships is definitely a stressful subject. I feel behind when it comes to my resume, linkedin, and interview ability. My expectation for the Internship Seminar includes feeling more confident in these aspects and knowing how to find internships that will suit me well. I hope to accomplish this through adjusting my resume to be more professional and understanding how to best present myself to companies. Another goal I have for the Internship Seminar is to improve my networking skills. I expect to learn more about what a conversation should look like with professionals, such as good questions to ask or how to make sure I seem interested in their company.

My main expectation for the actual internship is to gain work experience in a professional setting. My past jobs have been normal summer jobs, this will be my first internship which will be an amazing learning involvement no matter what. I hope to genuinely enjoy what I will be doing while acquiring new skills in this different work environment. I also hope to gain and grow a global professional network while building confidence through this. Being in an internship setting is hard, adding on a language and cultural barrier will make this harder, however, I think it will help with my confidence after coming back after being thrown into this situation.

I really hope to be capable of speaking a little bit of Italian by the time the seven weeks is up. It would be amazing to learn a couple of phrases and actually use them throughout the trip. Another expectation I have is gaining a better understanding of the culture and customs in places I visit through exploration and adventure in these new spots. It is so important to see norms in other countries to gain other perspectives as to how people and other societies function, I want to be able to see a lot of this. Lastly, my expectations for travel within this trip is to build memories and have a super fun summer. Having the ability to visit other places will only make this more possible!