Section 1: 

This week in the corporate social responsibility course we are concluding the term with our final paper presentations. On Monday there were 3 presentations and we also discussed a Wall Street Journal article. On Wednesday we finished the bulk of the presentations. Two of the presentations were about social media and the potential negative impacts that it has had on our generation. I thought that this topic was particularly interesting because I see how social media affects people everyday, but hearing some of the more extreme stories puts things into perspective. I also thought that there were interesting questions raised about whose responsibility it is to monitor social media, whether it is the job of the parents or the corporations who own these major driving social media platforms. 

 

Section 2: 

This was the last week of the internship seminar with Professor Swain and Dr. Gupta. For the first part of the class we learned about interview preparation and how to make good impressions and come up with interesting and solid responses to questions. This was a very important class as I am currently going through the interview process at multiple companies for internships in the summer of 2025. Once we completed an activity practicing answering interview questions we moved onto our final presentation. My group presented on race and ethnicity in Italy while most other groups opted to talk about sustainability and how Italy is trying to be more environmentally conscious. 

 

Section 3: 

This week at my internship we finished making our last video. We decided to do something slightly more fun than showing houses. We were doing things that Americans have to know about before coming to Italy. Some of the things that we touch on are how there is a lack of ice in water, you have to way for both water and the bathroom, no flip flops are allowed, there is very little personal space in public settings, and finally, people smoke a lot and will not move for you, so you have to weave through people constantly. Today we had our first and last lunch with our coworkers and I got a delicious diavola pizza. 

 

Section 4: 

Over the weekend my friend and I went to Barcelona. I had never been to Spain before so this was a really cool, interesting, and great experience. The first night we got food in one of the outdoor markets which was a really unique experience. The next day we decided to wake up early and explore as much as we could. Our first stop was the zoo where I got to see my favorite African animal. We then walked into the city center for lunch and were able to look around and walk around the smaller streets in the city center. Overall, I think that this was my best experience in Europe and I loved having the opportunity to see a new country and it be so close to home. 

My favorite animal in the world!

At the national museum in Milan

The beautiful ceiling at the museum

View of Barcelona.

This week in Professor Gupta’s corporate social responsibility course we spoke a lot about stakeholder capitalism. I found this to be very interesting because it showed that if performed properly, there could be many positive outcomes in the long term for all participating parties. Conversely, we talked about why should people even care if there are overall benefits for all participating parties since the whole point of a public corporation is to increase stockholder wealth. Since most companies are still focused on wealth maximization, some corporations are still missing the mark due to the evolution of employee activism and consumer social opinions shifting to a more demanding socially responsible mindset. 

In my internship at TempoCasa, we have been continuing to work on database entry. We are planning to do another video this week that is aimed at tourists or students who are interested in working or living in Italy. There are going to be some jokes and warnings because as Americans, there are a few things that we miss such as ice water. We had the day off this week Wednesday because our boss had a series of client meetings which ended up taking the whole day. There was a storm over the weekend where part of the ceiling on the window fell off in the office. This definitely changed the scenery of the office a lot. 

Over the weekend, I flew into Munich, Germany where I got to have dinner and meet the family of my boyfriend. We then drove down to Kitzbühel, Austria where he lives. It was great to get out of Italy and have a completely new kind of cuisine. Some say you never forget how to ride a bike, I think this is true, but I went on a bike for the first time in 10 years and it was certainly a scary and stressful experience, especially because we were in a city. The first night I tried Wiener Schnitzel and it is now one of my favorite meals. We also went on a hike in the mountains where we saw a bunch of cows and other animals. In the evening we took a Gondola up to an incredibly famous mountain that hosts one of the biggest ski races in the world. 

Cows!

The view from the top of the mountain

Kitzbühel

The view from the top of the Gondola

This week in the corporate social responsibility course with Professor Gupta I had the opportunity to present my Wall Street Journal entry about Trojan horse activists and the Securities Exchange Commission. We had a conversation about corporations and their responsibilities to shareholders. In the second class of the week we listened to a podcast about capitalism and how people don’t truly understand what it means to live in a capitalistic society. I have always heard my friends talk about capitalism as if were such a negative thing, but in theory capitalism should work, but has gotten a negative reputation. The final thing that we did in class was have a debate on whether companies should purely focus on profit and shareholder wealth or if they should focus and emphasize corporate social responsibility. It was interesting to think about this topic because at a corporations root, they should be purely for profit, but in the day and age we live in, you have to consider losses that could be faced if you don’t emphasize CSR.

This past internship seminar has been very similar to every other week. We discussed how customs are different in Italy than in the United States. This week we tried to center in on how customs are different within the workplace on a different level and focused on interpersonal communication. We came to the same conclusion that we do every week, every workplace is different and there is no on style. My workplace for example, is very laid back and does not have a severe corporate hierarchy, but some of my classmates did notice a more strict and pyramid like setup. One other thing we discussed is how American’s would rather be cold and Italians would rather be hot. The reason for this is because Italians associate air conditioning and cold with sickness and a more specific sickness that you can get from the air conditioner.

My internship was really laid back and fun this week. While the week started off a bit slow, only doing database entry which has now become a bit tedious, we got to know our bosses even better. A commonality has been found of enjoying the video game “Clash Royale” and there is now a friendly competition going on between the employees and interns. On Wednesday, we recorded our third video for social media where we got to tour prospective renters on video. I find this experience fun because we get an inside scoop and get to see lots of properties. Our employers told us that the most important part of the job is to be friends with the doormen in the neighborhood since they have the inside scoop on who is buying, selling, and renting properties. Me and my peers have now made a really good friend who works at the building on the corner opposite from where we work.

Over the weekend I took the train to Lake Garda. I was doing a solo trip and I was very excited, unfortunately, when I got to Desenzano di Garda train station there were no cabs. I had a new experience where I had to try to talk to someone in Italian on the phone in order to get a cab to pick me up. My speaking is definitely not getting better, but luckily I was able to get my point across. 20 minutes after getting into the car, I was standing on a grassy patch staring at Lake Garda. I was shocked by how large the lake was, it almost looked like the ocean. I tried to swim, but it was too cold, but I had an overall great time exploring a new place, trying new food, and having a relaxing weekend.

At work recording videos!

Rainy day in Navigli.

Delicious pasta on Lake Garda.

Yummy pizza while waiting for the train.

View from the train to Lake Garda.

This week in the Corporate Social Responsibility course we discussed a Wall Street journal article that explored the controversy of Planet Fitness and their inclusive policy. I took quite a strong stance on this topic as I have always been an advocate for keeping women’s space and giving them their own space when in vulnerable situations. As much as I view myself as an inclusive person, I believe that there needs to be strict rules in places such as gyms because there are constant opportunities for rule breaking and people who like to take advantage of rules and systems that companies implement. We talked about the importance of companies having values and abiding by those values, but ultimately decided that there is no right or wrong answer and each situation is unique to one another. 

In the Swain and Gupta combined internship seminar we briefly discussed customs within the Italian workplace with Professor Swain, but we quickly moved to a fascinating and heated debate about a reading passage called the Parable of the Sadhu. This was the first debate that I have ever had to make where I had to argue and debate the side that I wholeheartedly disagree with. I had to argue that hikers acted in a justified and ethical way by leaving a Sadhu on a cold mountain essentially to die. I think that I developed many new skills and I have always been the type of person to see the other side of things. That being said, this was a challenge, I do not think that it is ever justified to leave someone to die, especially for the reasons that the hikers did. 

This week working at Tempo Casa was a mix of fast paced while also being exceedingly slow. The first day of the week my peers and I attended the IES inauguration because our supervisor is the daughter of the president of IES Milan. This was a fun activity, but the next day was all work and fun. We were outside filming videos in English for the Tempo Casa website. My job was to explain to potential renters the documents that they will need in order to make a successful rental. One thing that I found interesting is that every student or person living in Italy is given an identification number which is similar to a social security number, but it is much less protected than in the United States. For the rest of the week we did database entry and got to know the team on a closer level which was great. 

This past weekend, I did a lot of tourist activities in Milan. My boyfriend was visiting and it gave me the opportunity to have an eager travel companion who wanted to see all parts of Milan that I have not yet explored. We did three different bus tours this past weekend where we got to see all areas of the city both modern and old which gave me a better sense of how the city is connected. This also showed me how truly small and intertwined the city is. One thing that I found interesting is that there aren’t really bad parts of Milan, everything is either a tourist spot, working area, or shopping areas, there are places to go out and have fun, but overall the city is very safe and similar. We explored a lot of the city center and went out to eat a lot which has been a nice change of pace from cooking dinner in Aparto every night. I love making food at home, but it has been nice to try new foods and of course saffron risotto for the first time! 

Outdoors during our internship recording videos!

Delicious pizza near city center.

My first carpaccio di manzo in Milan.

First sorbetto at Duomo.

Walking and definitely not shopping in the Galleria!

Heading into the second official week of Gupta’s Corporate Social Responsibility course, we still have not had an in person class. That being said, we have learned a number of things. For my second week’s Wall Street Journal post I decided to write about major companies such as Hulu, Netflix, and HBO Max changing their subscription plans into bundled packages. This article proved to be insightful relating to corporate social responsibility because it made me think about how companies that we interact with on a regular basis might not always have consumers’ true best interest in mind. I really enjoyed my article this week since I am an avid watcher of these platforms and it made me think of the thought that goes behind what plans I am currently paying for. 

Since my last blog post we have not had another class for the Swain internship seminar, but we did have a homework assignment. In this homework assignment we were asked to reflect on our first week at our internship and pinpoint areas of struggle, improvement, and strategies of how we would improve. While the first part seemed quite repetitive of my last week’s journal entry, the second half of the assignment was helpful as it served as an opportunity to pinpoint areas of actionable change and improvements. The internship seminar is making us think of creative ways to step outside of our comfort zone and improve on areas where we feel less comfortable or not strong in. 

Since the last blog post, at my internship, this week I was put in a scenario that I am completely foreign to. We were told that we would be advertising a property and recorded during this for it to be posted on social media. Charlie, Jack, and myself felt quite unprepared and unaware that we were going to have to do this. While it was quite enjoyable to get out of the office and see the spaces that we were working with virtually in person, we did not feel as though we were working long enough to all of the sudden be a face that appears in real life property rental advertisements. That being said, we were able to learn enough information to sufficiently explain the space and I think we all learned new skills. 

This past weekend we certainly had an adventure. With a 5am wake up, the whole group was ready to adventure to the Swiss alps. With a 3 hour nap on the bus, we arrived at the high ropes course awakened and ready for an adventure. I was excited to get out of the city and this ropes course was a great opportunity to be in nature and have a fun adventure. Once we finished the ropes course we had a two hour break where we had lunch and then we were off to a hike. Unfortunately, while the hike was fun at times, there was a significant amount of snow to the point where we were unable to get to the final destination of lake Arpy. There were beautiful views and this was a great opportunity to hang out with friends and experience a new area of Italy. 

This was the first week of the Lehigh in Milan program. While we have not yet had Professor Gupta’s class on corporate social responsibility we did our first Wall Street Journal entry. I decided to write about Boeing and their shortcomings regarding a legal case they encountered in 2021. I found it quite difficult to find the correct article that touched on the necessary topics which led me to search for hours until I found the right article. Ultimately, upon reading other articles as well as reading Professor Gupta’s feedback I have a much clearer understanding of what is expected in the future regarding these entries. I also believe that while it is important to pick an article of interest, most topics, if they are unpacked and explored properly, will relate to CSR and there is no correct answer. Despite not having class yet, we were introduced to the new IES center and were given a sufficient orientation regarding Italian culture, logistics of trips, and explanations on how class will occur with the absence of Professor Gupta in person. 

Today marked the inaugural internship seminar class led by Professor Swain. Unfortunately, I was sick and unable to attend the class in person, but I got quite a bit of information from my peers. One thing that I have noticed from my internship which was also mentioned during the Swain internship seminar was the Italian inclination towards punctuating the workday with many breaks, a departure from the American norm of eating at your desk in order to cram in more working hours. Despite that difference, there is a similarity between Italian work culture and American; that is the Italians encourage and reward curiosity, a demonstration of capability before asserting oneself, and a proactive attitude and approach to work. While I did not get as much information from the class as I had hoped, I am eager in the upcoming weeks to learn more about the Italian workplace and enact the tools and strategies I learn within my internship.

Just this past Monday, I was able to meet the team of Tempo Casa which is where I will be interning for the rest of the summer. While a new transit system in a new city is always a challenge, Charlie, Jack, and myself were able to find the location with some ease. Once we arrived we were introduced to the team and almost immediately embarked on a coffee adventure with our coworkers. Once we arrived back from coffee after fun introductions, we were introduced to the contact database for the real estate agency. This is when fun, but tedious work began. We spent about two hours doing contact entries with many breaks and opportunities to ask questions to our team leader, Monica. The half day went by quickly and we said, “Ciao”. On the second day of the internship we unfortunately did not have a seamless adventure to the location of Temp Casa. The tram ride went smoothly, but we were met by a bus that said, “notturno” which sort of means the bus is nocturnal and therefore was not running. We adapted and took a brisk walk to the office. Upon arrival we once again got coffee and were tasked with listing a property on the website. This property had been listed in italian, but we had to change it to english. Since none of us know how to speak italian we enlisted the help of google translate and ChatGPT which helped us transcribe and find words in english most similar to the italian words that don’t exist in America. To conclude the day we did a bit more database entry and said goodbye. 

There were many activities that I am eager to do now that I am in Italy. I arrived a couple of days early to Milan in the hopes that it would help me get over my jet lag faster. Warning, it did not. The first night I arrived in Italy, I decided to look up the restaurants with the best view. I randomly booked a seat at a restaurant called Da Giacamo. I had a delicious pasta and was seated directly beside the Duomo on the 4th floor. Unfortunately, due to being ill I was unable to partake in any weekend activities the first weekend here, but I am optimistic and planning many trips within Italy and all around Europe. 

My expectations in terms of the academic enrichment aspect of the program via Professor Gupta’s corporate social responsibility course are high. As a current student of Professor Gupta, I know how passionate, comprehensive, and informative his teachings are. While I am not an accounting genius, corporate social responsibility has always been an interest of mine and I am eager to learn more about the topic especially with Professor Gupta. Currently, in BUS 203 we are doing a project on CSR and this has only piqued my interest further. Additionally, I think that the international component of this course will offer a new perspective to CSR that I might not have previously explored. Since I don’t yet know the nitty gritty parts of what we will be learning, it is hard to pinpoint my particular expectations or goals. Overall, I want to explore the overarching themes and standards within CSR worldwide while diving deep into the ethical issues and decisions that are made regionally and internationally. 

While I have been in a professional workplace before, I am excited for the academic enrichment via Gupta / Swain internship seminar. In school we are taught facts. Facts are important, they are what give us the knowledge to be competent within a career, but I feel a missing aspect of what we are taught is the lack of professional competence that we need within the workplace. I think that this seminar will give the whole class a better grasp on the standard practices of the workplace, teach us how to handle ourselves, and turn us into assets within an organization as opposed to a hindrance or a body in the room. I like to consider myself competent and responsible, but I often find myself doing exactly as I am told. While this is the standard and what is expected, I want to learn how to do the unexpected and be above the standard, learn the strategies and market myself and prove that I am unique. 

I think that all four components of this course fit perfectly with one another. Ever since I was an infant, I have been surrounded by painstakingly hard working interns at my mother’s company. I’ve always wanted to be like them: a passionate student who gets hands-on experience, learns new skills, and forges pivotal relationships for professional development. The internship aspect of the Lehigh in Milan program will give me the opportunity to get into the workplace within an industry that I am passionate about. While I do not know the true essence or theme of the internship that I will be getting, I know that this will be the first job where I will truly be able to learn, develop, and hone new skills. I am a people person, so I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work alongside professionals in Milan. Through reading blog posts of previous years, I have seen that interns have made incredible friendships with their coworkers and there is a mutually beneficial relationship that seems organic and genuine. A question often arises with students, “This job requires experience, but if every job requires previous experience how will I ever get the experience needed?” This internship is a privilege and memory that I am sure I won’t forget. It will give me the opportunity to gain experience within my industry of interest while also giving me the opportunity to make necessary connections. While I have no expectation of this internship setting the theme for the rest of my professional career, it will always be the first self earned opportunity that kickstarted a passion of mine. 

I am possibly most excited about the cultural immersion through group and personal travels. I have been traveling for as long as I can remember, but it has never been for long periods of time. Last summer, I did a study abroad program in Paris. I had been to Paris a number of times before, but this adventure was different. Since the program was for an extended period of time, it gave me the opportunity to get a more genuine experience that felt more natural than the tourist perspective. I am excited to be in another country where I get to immerse myself in an experience that is more native to the country. I have been to Italy once before, but only to the south. I am excited to get a fresh perspective on a different sector and I am sure, a completely different culture. One thing I learned in anthropology and history is that food has long been a universal language to understand another culture when you don’t speak the same language. Italy is easily one of the food capitals of the world and I am excited to try new things and eat at places I normally would not have the opportunity to go to. Milan is the fashion capital of the world, so once I am done trying all the foods I am sure I will need new clothing and what better place to shop? One thing I love about Italy is that every location has a completely different feeling, vibe, and structure. You can be in an incredible city one minute and two hours later you can be in the mountains. I will certainly be taking advantage of the ease of travel and visit as many locations as possible.