This week in Milan has been very exciting, stressful, and an informative experience. First, the class with Prof. Gupta has been such a great learning experience. This week he taught us about corporate governance and how there is much more to it than what one might think a corporation is. Through lectures, videos, and readings, students develop a different perspective about how corporations run and their function in society today. I’ve felt I have learned much more about the business world in this past week than I ever did. I learned that corporations aren’t necessarily an entity, but they can be a person. The intentions of corporations vary especially compared to the past. Corporations before just wanted to make the most money and didn’t care about their impact on society. Now, companies have corporate social responsibilities and have changed some of their ways of functioning and how they operate their business. Additionally, I didn’t know how much of an impact shareholders can have on a business. I learned about the proxy process and I was shocked that depending on the company, shareholders could actually get rid of the current management or CEO. I found that to be very interesting. I look forward to expanding my knowledge on business ethics and corporate governance and how it applies to my generation as we are the future of society.

My internship experience has been wonderful. My supervisor has taught me a lot about their accounting methods and the different sectors they do within their company. So far I have worked on two different projects. The first was preparing a Register for a company which proves the accuracy of their monthly tax payments. The second was entering all the broker invoices for the past month. The reason why it was a little stressful at first was because it was all in Italian. The language barrier has been difficult at times but my supervisor has been very patient with me and understanding. Additionally, each assignment had a deadline so I had to work diligently and efficiently. To improve my performance, my supervisor gave me a lot of hints and formulas I could use in Excel to help me get through all the tasks quicker. So far I really enjoy what I have been doing and I’m excited to keep learning more about the company’s accounting principles and platforms they use as well as Excel functions.

This week, my class went to visit Leonardo da Vinci’s famous mural painting of The Last Supper which was an unbelievable experience. I was shocked to see how well preserved the artwork was given how it is hundreds of years old. Over the weekend, my friends and I visited Nice, France. The city is on the east coast of France and is right next to Monte Carlo. We went shopping, ate at multiple restaurants, and went to the beach for two days. I found it very interesting that the beach wasn’t sand but instead all pebbles and rocks. I definitely wasn’t used to the no sand beach but it was such a unique experience that I’d definitely recommend it to others.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Last Supper Mural

The beach of Nice, France

The Hotel we stayed at in Nice, France called  the Excelsior Nice Hotel