The final week of CSR classes was dedicated to final presentations. I appreciated that the final presentation and paper were related. I drafted my portion of the paper before I started the presentation, making the presentation easier to generate and present. I was then able to revise my paper after getting feedback about my presentation, maximizing my overall understanding. My group’s research topic was about data privacy on social media, and how to balance it between individuals and corporations. I have always been weary about sharing too much information on social media because it could easily get in the wrong hands. My reservations had always revolved around other users, but this topic showed me how the social media platforms themselves may be the biggest enemy. This topic was very eye opening, and I appreciated the opportunity to learn more about data privacy rights. It was also interesting to hear from my classmates about their prospective research topics and see how they tied their issues to corporate social responsibility. As a result of the presentations I realized how much CSR relates to all aspects of business, and once this class ends I will continue to recognize the impact that corporations have on society. 

The internship seminar was similar to CSR this week, and we spent the majority of class presenting our final projects. Each group had the autonomy to choose their research topic and focus, which made the presentations more engaging because everyone was interested in what they presented. Interestingly, many groups choose to study sustainability in Italy. I personally was amazed by how prevalent sustainability initiatives are in Italy, something that is not prioritized in the US. These presentations developed my understanding of Italian sustainability beyond what I picked up on by living here for 8 weeks. The first part of the internship seminar was focused on the interview process, which I think was a great learning experience. I have had a few interviews previously and as an intern for the Center for Career and Professional Development I have learned about the logistics, but I always appreciate when a well versed individual shares their personal experience and advice (like Professor Gupta here). 

The final week of my internship is about tying everything together that I have learned and worked on over the course of two months. My internship advisor was pleased with the studies and reports I found on scholarly databases like JSTOR. These links will help the CHIARA team because they explore women’s health in international border towns or each separately and can use past studies as reference when in the analysis phase. Since the data collection is not at the stage that was anticipated when I started the internship, I could not do too much coding. On Tuesday, I met with my internship advisor to do what we could with the data. Earlier that morning, the group went to the Politecnico di Milano for our final time. We got a personalized tour of the chemical engineering laboratory. It was an amazing experience and the lab is working on prosthetics and cardiovascular devices. Seeing the innovation and efforts of the lab was inspiring. To wrap up this interview experience Rory, Mahan and I are meeting with our advisor on Friday to present our internship reports and walk through all we accomplished. Since I am getting a degree in both Population Health and Economics, I was excited to experience one of my degrees in the real world. While I enjoyed my internship, I am interested in getting an internship next summer that revolves around economics to see if I like the field better. 

Split, Croatia was the destination of choice for the last weekend of my European summer. The trip was really quick because of the flight options from MXP to Split, and I was up at 3:30am on Friday to catch my flight. As soon as I arrived in Split, I realized that I have never seen anything quite like it. The architecture was beachy but still had authentic old european architecture, which was a beautiful combination. We spent the first day at a beach club about 2 miles from Old Town, and we walked there along the water. The summer adventure continued and we spent Saturday afternoon on a boat, swimming off the coast of Croatia in beautiful Blue Lagoons. The trip was the perfect combination of relaxing and fun. During the day I was able to finish my 7th book of the summer (a running record) and at night I got to explore the city. We ended up playing cards for 3+ hours on Saturday, which may have been my favorite part of the trip. I feel like I have spent the last 7 weeks trying to become a part of Milan, so I avoided the tourist attractions. The rest of the week I plan on enjoying what I love about Milan as an exchange student but will hopefully get tickets to go inside the Duomo (and be a bit of a tourist). It is bittersweet to say goodbye to this chapter, but I am excited to rest and recuperate for the next month before I go back to school for OL training.