For Professor Gupta’s Corporate Social Responsibility course this week, we started by reading an interesting case study regarding Apple’s supply chain issues with suppliers Foxconn and Pegatron. Apple was accused of allowing labor rights violations at both of these suppliers factories. The working conditions for the employees in these factories were awful, and I hated reading about what these employees were put through. We followed up with a very interesting debate over whether Apple should be held responsible for these violations and conditions. Although Apple does not have any legal rights over these workers, and it is the Chinese government that is allowing this to happen, Apple does have the resources and reputation to make a change. However, there are many other companies that also need to be held responsible and push for change in order for it to happen. It should not be just up to Apple. In addition to the case study, we watched two very well-produced movies “Erin Brockovich” and “A Civil Action.” I love both Julia Roberts and John Travolta, so I enjoyed watching these movies very much. I have to say that I liked “Erin Brockovich” more because I found it more empowering, and there was a happy ending. These movies made me realize how difficult it is to sue large corporations, especially when you are a small, private law firm. I now wonder how many large corporations have gotten away with polluting communities, just because they are more able to win lawsuits.  

For Professor Swain and Gupta’s Internship Seminar this week, we had a homework assignment where we read about motivation. I was able to reflect on what motivated me in the workplace specifically. This is an important thing for me to know about myself as I will soon be entering the workforce. The reading and this internship experience as a whole has made me realize that I am motivated to do well for a boss that respects me and wants me to succeed. I hope to look for a boss in the future that is like my boss here, because she has a lot of respect for me which has pushed me to want to do well for her in return. After discussing motivation in class, we had a resume building workshop which was much needed for me. I was not completely sure how to write down my SuiteFood internship on my resume, but I will continue to work on that in the future. My hope is that this internship will set me up well for future interviews and jobs.  

In my internship this week, I continued to do research and write articles about the health benefits and implications of the SuiteFood product, Coccola. I was able to write these articles and see them get published to the website right away. I was happy to know that my boss liked and trusted my writing enough to publish them immediately. A new website was created this week, and I am very happy with the result, as it looks a lot better than the old website which needed to be updated. Abi and I helped design this website which was more difficult than I expected, but I am glad our work paid off. Finally, I created a video where I shared my thoughts about Coccola and how much I enjoyed it. I started by stating my name, where I am from, and how much I like Coccola. My boss, Emmanuela, was very excited about this idea as she wants to try and market to the US. She made it very clear that I needed to share where I was from. If she likes the video enough, it should be up on the website soon. 

This weekend, I took day trips to Lake Como, Bologna and Florence. On Friday morning, we took a 40 minute train to Lake Como. The train was packed, and we did not get on fast enough which led to us standing in the middle of the train. The train system in Europe is not the best, and it is my least favorite part of traveling. It was the day after the US presidential debate, and something I noticed was multiple people on the train reading about it. It was interesting to see so many people reading about it even though we are in Italy, and I think many were Italians. We started our day in Lake Como by walking around the town. It was beautiful and not too busy which made it even nicer. Unfortunately, there was lots of construction near the lake which took away from the beauty. We sat down for breakfast and waited for more friends to arrive before heading off on our boat tour. We took a 2 hour boat trip where we saw important buildings, landmarks, took a swim, and had some wine. The boat was very relaxing, and it was a great way to see the beauty of Lake Como. We saw Versace’s old house as well as George Clooney’s villa. Both were incredible. We got dinner at a great restaurant outside of the town and then headed back. It was a quick trip, but I think it was the perfect amount of time to be in Lake Como. On Saturday, we went to Bologna on the way to Florence. There was not a reason to go to Bologna other than the fact that tortellini is my favorite food, and Bologna is where it was invented, so I needed to try it. We walked around the city for a little bit, then got lunch at a highly recommended restaurant. Of course, I got tortellini, and it was amazing – by far my favorite meal in Italy so far. We stopped in a beautiful church, but other than that, Bologna was not one of the prettier cities I have been to. We also went to the public library and saw ancient ruins on the bottom floor which was very cool. Then, we traveled to Florence for the gold markets and dinner. The markets had very pretty items, but all too expensive for me. It was extremely hot in Florence which made it difficult to walk around for too long. We stopped for apritivo at a rooftop bar before our wonderful dinner at Acqua Al 2. The blueberry steak is to die for. I am looking forward to going to Split, Croatia next weekend as I have never been to Croatia before. I am missing the land of the free and home of the brave on this wonderful holiday.