During my time in Milan this summer, I have specific expectations that I hope will be fulfilled in each of the four key elements of the program. In the Academic Enrichment via Professor Gupta’s Corporate Social Responsibility course, I expect to gain a deeper knowledge of what companies’ roles are within the public sector, and how companies may take different approaches to achieve their CSR goals. I believe that part of running an ethical company is giving back to stakeholders and the community as a whole, but I hope to see if many companies agree with this. Additionally I hope to learn about how companies’ values affect their profits, and if regular consumers really pay attention to these values or not. 

In the Academic Enrichment via Gupta/Swain Internship Seminar, I hope to develop my personal and professional skills that I can use in career building. My expectation for this course is that it will set me up as a good candidate for future internships. I hope to build upon my resume so that it will be recognized by companies. I want to learn what makes a resume stand out and what are bad techniques that are commonly used. I also hope to build upon my interviewing skills so that I am less nervous when going through future interviews. I believe my interviewing skills could use a lot of work, and I would like to know how to be professional and confident while interviewing. 

In my actual internship, my expectation is that I will develop fundamental skills necessary to be successful in the work environment. I hope that my work will contribute to benefit the company so that I can feel my work being appreciated. If I can see how I am helping the company, the work will be more rewarding to me. Although things may go wrong, I hope to learn from my mistakes so that I am able to do better in the future and avoid those mistakes in future jobs. Most importantly, I hope that I enjoy the work that I do and the environment that I work in. With this, I hope to build good relationships with my coworkers and boss.  

Finally, in cultural immersion through group and personal travel, my expectation is that by exploring other cultures, I will gain new perspectives. As a part of this, I hope to meet new people who share different backgrounds as me so that I am able to get a different understanding of the world. In addition to exploring Milan, I expect to travel to other cities in Italy and Europe, and immerse myself into as many cultures as possible. When in all these different places, I want to learn about how cultures differ from my own through learning about their daily practices. By the end of the program, I expect to be more well-rounded than when I came into it.