Mahan Mostafavi's Blog Post #5 June 13, 2024 | 2024 Lehigh-in-Milan with Professor Gupta

CSR

In class this week, we discussed the importance of governance for corporations. We talked in-depthly about Lily’s blog post about behavioral nudges encouraged by corporations. This topic was super insightful as it opened class up for discussion, in which we brainstormed ideas or situations where we have been nudged by companies without knowing. It opened my eyes to a different side to corporations, which was marketing strategies. When completing the homework this week, I discovered the true importance of corporate governance and how relevant this topic is to the face of corporations. It provided me with a new way of thinking and perspective of companies that I had neglected before.

Internship Seminar

In our internship seminar this week with professor Swain we focused more on the cultural differences that we experience between the US and Italy. Specifically discussing how foreigners perceive both countries. What I thought was interesting was the wages and tax rates in Italy. There is such a large discrepancy between income in the US vs. Italy, as well as, the rate of taxation that Italy has is much higher than the US. Additionally, I thought it was very fascinating that an Italian can identify which state region, which is the size of Rhode Island, a person can come from when there are over 100 provinces. It was also interesting to talk about our companies from a more professional point of view or external point of view when discussing the workplace encyclopedia.

Internship

This week for my internship, Domenico and I discussed the goals for my internship. There are two aspects he would like me to focus on throughout the duration of my internship. First, is adding a step 8 to the company’s toolkit to identify waste management systems which would specifically focus on the assessment of microplastics. Specifically, how to help individuals use the BLIPS (portable microscope I mentioned in my last blog post) to identify microplastics in debris and litter from the beach sites. Furthermore, he asked me to help Metabolism of Cities encourage individuals to participate in citizen science. I’ve done some more research on the topic and citizen science, and I think Metabolism would highly benefit from having a stronger presence on social media because the majority of their participants are high school and college students.

Cultural Immersion

This past week a small group of us went to Florence for the weekend and it was quite the experience. The ease of public transportation was on full display with the quality of the trains and the station. I was blown away. The Duomo in Florence was beautiful, but not as impressive as the Duomo in Milan. We went to two local restaurants that Jonah’s coworker at IAG recommended who was from Florence. It was some of the best steak I had ever had in my life. On Saturday, we went to the Uffizi which is a famous museum in Florence that had famous sculptures and paintings from artists such as Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo. It was definitely a weekend to remember while studying abroad.