Julia Dzurenko's Blog Post #9: Last Week in Milan! | 2024 Lehigh-in-Milan with Professor Gupta

Professor Gupta’s CSR Class

This week, we went through our presentations, and a presentation that caught my attention was the Cancel culture presentation done by Victoria Hawk, Hannah Gordon, and Kiera Han. I really liked their approach because you always hear opinions on cancel culture, and not facts. The facts gave me room to reassess my perspective on this topic and feel stronger about this topic. I thought they were all great presenters that were genuinely educated and involved in their topic, as they were not really looking at their notes and just presenting to the class. I like hearing everyone’s presentations because I like to listen about facts and then rearrange my opinions and perspectives because I believe that is the best way to learn and be unique!

Internship Seminar

This week in our Internship Seminar, we all presented our presentations, and I was interested to see the other topics other than sustainability, which was our topic, because I was interested in the other perspectives of Italians, and the research that they found. I like these sorts of presentations and projects because it allows me to learn more niche topics from students that have researched and been dealt this assignment to talk us through their findings. I like the idea of q&a because it gives the students who wanted further clarification, if they were curious about the topic beforehand, to ask and maybe receive an answer from the students due to their research, or ask Professor Swain or Professor Gupta questions if they know anything about the subject.

Internship in Milan

Throughout my time at Simplifhy, I have learned about communication, Italian culture, business, engineering, sustainability, entrepreneurship, etc. This startup has been such an interesting experience because I get to work with the CEO himself, and see him navigate issues within his company, but also solving those issues and problems with a team that is so dedicated to this company. There are two students that go to University that work as interns, and they want to come here to work everyday instead of going to school in the morning. That was a huge eye opener for me because it led me to want to enjoy and love my job as much as they do. It is so refreshing to see these employees interact with each other with such enthusiasm and collaboration. They welcomed me with such open arms and I couldn’t be more happy about my placement here at Simplifhy. I finished up my project of market research, and presented in front of their investor to get him to believe in the Compressorless, a mobile hydrogen refueling station for yachts, trucks, mining, agriculture, machinery etc.

Travel and Culture in Italy

This weekend, which was one of my favorites, we traveled to Split, Croatia! It was 14 of us, and it was a great ending to my time here in Europe. We flew in at around 7 am and got to Croatia at 8 am, so it was a very quick flight. We immediately ate breakfast, and tried to find a good beach to go to while we waited to check into our airbnb. We went to this beach that was absolutely beautiful, but it was pretty far from the middle of Split. We rented out beach chairs, and the beach was surrounded by cliffs and mountains, where people were jumping off the cliffs and rocks. There was a little hidden area that people went to be more secluded by the cliff and it was a beautiful sight. After that, we went back to our airbnb which was perfect for the 14 of us. It was right in the middle of the town which made it so easy to get places. We went to dinner, and then made our way to Charlie’s bar, which was fun with all of our friends. The next day, we had a boat trip that lasted 5 hours. We stopped twice to swim, and one was in the blue lagoon! I jumped off the high part of the boat which I was really proud of myself, even though it took me 20 minutes and strangers were cheering me on because I am so afraid of heights. I eventually jumped in with Kate and I am happy to say I will never be doing that again because it was the worst feeling in my stomach. The boat was really relaxing at the end because we were all just singing to music and shutting our eyes as we went back to the port. Then, we got back and showered to go to dinner and drinks. Evelyn and I spotted this stray cat and of course we had to go and pet it, as it was so friendly to other people. We wanted to bring it home, but sadly it wasn’t possible. Then, the next morning we flew back to Milan, and it was a long day for all of us trying to catch up on work and such.