Victoria Hawk’s Blog Post #6: June 20, 2024 | 2024 Lehigh-in-Milan with Professor Gupta

In class this week, we continued our normal routine of starting off class by talking about anything exciting that happened over the weekend and our travel plans. We then started to discuss some of the Wall Street Journal posts. The more we do these, the more I enjoy writing them on my own and completing this assignment. The insight, information, and new perspectives that I get from my classmates help me see their opinions on the article we are currently talking about in class and articles I read in the future. This is something that I really love that we do in class, and I like that everyone feels open and comfortable to share their opinion. In the second half of class, we watched a video and then got together with our group to answer questions. Each group was assigned different questions regarding different topics. Each person from almost every group shared at least one of their questions, and I really liked hearing everyone’s answers and opinions on these different questions/topics.

In the internship seminar this week, we covered a broad range of topics. It was really great to hear about my peers’ experiences in Milan and at their internships. We talked about the goals we set when we first got here and what we noticed here that we wouldn’t have if we were just in Milan for a few days. That was one of my favorite discussions so far because I would have never asked that question before. I feel like I have become more socially aware of what’s going on around me and have picked up some Italian habits that I wouldn’t have if I were only visiting Milan for a few days. Then, we went on to talk about the culture of our internships, the style of our bosses, and how they are different. It’s very interesting to hear everyone’s perspectives on what is going on at their internship compared to yours. Lastly, we wrapped up class by talking about the stereotypes we make about Italians and Italians make about us.

This week in my internship, we started to finalize the steps before we got to start calling and reaching out to clients that we would invite to the trade show, Sigep. It is starting to get very exciting because Sigep is our main focus and what we spend most of our time working on. We are organizing one of the last spreadsheets with all of the companies to whom we could reach out and make sure we have all of their contact information. I have really enjoyed doing this work and find it very interesting. I am also really excited about Wednesday at work because we are having another lunch at my boss’s house. He is cooking lasagna for all of the interns and his co-workers. I really like these meals at his house because someone’s home and living style shows a lot about a person, and he really opens up to us in his house.

This weekend was definitely the longest and most stressful, but also my favorite. This weekend, I traveled to Cinque Terre, Monterosso, and Riomaggiore, but we stayed in La Spezia. We stayed at the cutest Air bnb! This was the most beautiful and relaxing place I have ever been to. The water was so clear, and the entire layout of this place was beautiful. The rocks were huge, and each looked different and had different structures. The stressful aspect of the trip was traveling on the way home. We were unaware of all the strikes that were going on and didn’t think they could heavily impact the train lines. On Sunday, halfway through the way, we realized all the trains were getting canceled or delayed. Luckily, we figured it out and made it home, but it was a good lesson to learn. Even with all of the stress, this has definitely been my favorite trip so far.