This was another very solid week spent in Milan. Our class has continued to progress nicely, and I am learning quite a bit. I would say that my favorite part of the class so far is the Wall Street Journal aspect. I’m really appreciative that this class has forced me to actively spend time every day catching up on the business headlines and forcing me to read. At first, I was very hesitant about it all, but now I have fully bought in and love it. I used to read the news often but had stopped because I was so busy, but this is making it a habit for me again.

As for my internship, it was another successful week. Pat and I continue to work really well together, and we completed all of our tasks. This week our rough draft for our article was due. We had to write about how start-ups and scale-ups are finding it more difficult to get as high valuations as they previously were, and also investors are finding it more difficult to exit as high as they used to. Our supervisor said that she was super impressed with our work, which made us both feel good especially since neither of us had ever done something like this before. We also continued building up our database, doing research, and writing about three new large companies.

The biggest highlight of this week was our trip this past weekend to Cinque Terre. It was one of the coolest places that I have ever been to. It’s a group of five little towns right along the coast, and each is similar in colorful architecture but still unique in its own way. I think that my favorite part of the trip was when we hiked between two of the towns on this little trail. It was an hour-long hike and had some of the best views of the trip so far. We also hung out on the beach after that and swam around, which felt amazing, especially after that hot hike. Some other highlights of the week include walking around the fashion district in Milan, visiting a Milan history museum, and also getting more pizza and gelato. I am super excited because a small group of us are going to Geneva this weekend, which I am sure will be really cool. We also keep visiting the same cafe before class, and the guys there are beginning to recognize us and even knew our order when we walked in this week.

This week at my internship placement I am working on updating our databases. I am making sure all clients and suppliers for each company that Clarkson Hyde works with are accounted for within the accounting system. I have found this very interesting because of the observations I have been able to make about the scope of business within Milan and Italy as a whole. Almost all suppliers and clients for an Italian company are located within the country, and a large number are within the same city that the company operates in. This can likely be attributed to the fact that in Milan, most businesses are small, around 10-15 employees. This shows that doing business on a global scale may not be as common as it is in the United States.

In class, I have tried to learn more about ESG investing. For my Wall Street Journal entry, an assignment that we do every week in Professor Gupta’s class, I examined an investigation into Goldman Sachs regarding an ESG fund that they have created. Investing that focuses on sustainable and socially responsible companies is something that has become increasingly popular in recent years. Many investment and asset management companies have attempted to create ESG funds in order to appeal to these investors. However, the term ESG is constantly evolving, which has led to many organizations, including the SEC, refraining from defining it. Professor Gupta asked me a question that made me reconsider my original positioning on this matter. He asked me “if the term ESG cannot yet be defined, how can we accuse companies of misusing it?” While the specific fund investigated in my Wall Street Journal project is clearly not an ESG fund, legally, there is no basis for an accusation of Goldman Sachs misusing the term. 

This week, I really wanted to take time to explore Milan out of the areas I visit on a daily basis. I took the tram to Milan Chinatown with a few friends, and found the area very interesting. One of the things that surprised me the most was the fact that when we went, around 7pm, everything but a few restaurants seemed to be closed. In other areas of Milan, 7pm feels like the start of the day, as this is when many people get off of work. However, just being in another area of the same city, the schedule felt completely different. Walking a few minutes away, I got to see the three large towers that stand high against the low skyline of Milan. They house the offices of some well-known companies, including Microsoft. Again, going just a few minutes into a new area, the architecture looked completely different than what I see going to class or work. Having spent a few weeks here, I find it very interesting to see how many sub-areas there are in Milan, and how different they can be from one another. 

This week in our CSR course we had an interesting conversation about Apple’s supply chain and the corporation’s human rights violations. I had originally thought that the only way for the COO to make a meaningful difference in offshore factories would be to implement stricter oversight in these locations. However, Professor Gupta asked how the COO, Williams, will be motivated to prioritize CSR? The answer was that the best way for the board of directors to motivate Mr. Williams is to tie his commission to his CSR efforts. I also find it interesting to consider that although we are aware of the horrible conditions of the factories which produce our iPhones, we still are hopelessly loyal to Apple. It is way too normalized within our society to turn a blind eye to the horrible conditions to which workers in foreign companies are subjected. After reading about the child labor at the SHEIN factories, I stopped buying from this brand. I also attempt to buy as many clothes as I can from second-hand sellers so that I can avoid fast fashion. I hope that there will be a point when corporations will begin to prioritize the rights of workers over their own profits. 

During my internship this week I needed to learn to adjust to how Italian employers assign projects and give feedback. I was in charge of creating a presentation for my supervisor that detailed the differences in social media between Tempocasa and its three main Italian competitors. I was very proud of the presentation and was excited to show off my hard work. My supervisor, however, was not available to watch the presentation and instead sent in one of her colleagues. This colleague wanted us to go down a different route with the presentation despite the previous instructions we were given. Although this was frustrating at first, I learned to adapt and understand this critique was not a critique of my work but rather a suggestion for improvement. The language barrier at my company is becoming less of an issue as I learn to interpret the tone of my employer. I now have the opportunity to present for a group of supervisors and I am excited about this opportunity as my presentation is now even more detailed than before. 

This past weekend our group visited Cinque Terre. I think that this was my favorite destination so far because it had beautiful beaches yet a traditional Italian look. There were small churches that were interesting to look at and also small restaurants that offered local cuisine. My friends and I actually stayed in an Airbnb boat which was a completely unique experience for me. The boat was located on a small dock which was almost like its own community. Everyone and their families slept on the decks of their boats and it was such a cute environment for the nighttime. A big cultural difference between Milan and Cinque Terre is that the people in Cinque Terre are much more laid back in the sense that there are fewer people rushing to get somewhere on time. Additionally, fewer people spoke English which made the trip slightly challenging at times. I generally feel that as I travel more throughout Europe I am developing new ways to communicate with people and have become very adept at noticing differences in culture.

This past week in class has had a great effect on my perspective. Professors Gupta’s lessons really challenge us as students to think about problems objectively. He wants us to see problems from both parties, and how our financial system and its relation with government is a push and a pull. We focused heavily on the darker side or corporations this week, and how they are held responsible ( or not). We discussed how we personally would hold corporations accountable, or rather if we thought that corporations and the market would figure it out themselves. It was very interesting and though provoking to play devils advocate and try and pick apart each sides argument. In our other class, with Mrs. Swain, we discussed workplace differences, and cultural differences that effect our day to day lives in Italy versus the United States. We all went into detail about our personal experiences with work thus far.

In regards to my internship, I have been learning a lot about small businesses and their inner financial workings. Sean Werfel and I have been researching and documenting different startups and how they obtain, manage, and use funds. Our boss is currently in Hong Kong, so we have been connecting with him through Microsoft Teams. In addition to our financial research, we have been tasked with improving and westernizing their marketing platform. Last week was Design Week, and my coworkers had attended in order to promote our company: Vado. Additionally, we have created a presentation and survey in order to ask our fellow IES students and others on their thoughts of our product. Said product is a travel/luggage organizer that comes with designated bags for the gym, laundry, a backpack and more. The design is quite intuitive. Thus far in our surveying we have gotten a lot of positive feedback and some helpful constructive criticism.

This week was the best yet. This past weekend six friends and I stayed over in Cinque Terre after our IES field trip. It was the prettiest place I have ever been. The views were breathtaking and it almost seemed like you could see for forever into the horizon on the water. All around the land were tall and layered mountains which cut into the skyline. We stayed in an Airbnb on a boat, which was quite fun. We got to travel to a more southern and relaxed region of the five islands, Porto Venere. The water there was crystal clear, and in the morning we could see hundreds of jellyfish around the boat and the surrounding shore. The dock we were parked on happened to be the only swimmable dock in the whole city, so we were able to jump right off the boat!

This past week in Italy has been the best thus far. First, in Prof. Gupta’s class, our class discussions have been getting more informative, thoughtful, and argumentative. In the first few weeks, Prof. Gupta would be the main lecturer and would be teaching us about corporate social responsibility and governance. Now, everyone in class has become more involved and would share examples that they would be reading from the Wall Street Journal. There have been many instances in class where students with differing opinions on a certain issue would debate back and forth with each other leading to a whole class discussion. In my opinion, the Wall Street Journals have been helping my classmates and myself better understand the content shared in class. It’s one thing to listen to Prof. Gupta lectures, read the articles he posts in class, and watch the videos, but to apply what we would have been learning about to real-world stories is what elevates the learning to the next level. Exploring and researching how different firms and CEOs operate and how it affects their stakeholders, shareholders, and impact on society is the most challenging part but also my favorite part about this class.    

For my internship, in the beginning of the week, I continued on what I worked on the previous week which was setting up their “INCASSI” and “POLIZZE” files for each month. Then, after I completed this task, I would put all of the content in one big file for the 2021 year and present it to the boss who would review it and send it out. Towards the middle of the week, I had to translate a Swedish company’s balance sheet and income statement which was all in Swedish to English and Italian for my supervisor and boss. This would all be put into a separate file in Excel and I would have to align the data to match our company’s format. At the end of the week, I recorded who our clients rented their properties to and the amount into our accounting system. For this task, I had to use a keypad on the computer and type the numbers in as fast as I could. In this activity, I learned how to work fast while being cautious and attentive. In accounting, you can’t make any errors because as the files get passed along, the mistakes will just keep building and end up being worse in the end. It’s essential to minimize errors and if so, to correct them immediately. Most importantly, I learned to pay attention to small details as it is so easy to mistype or misread numbers especially when you are trying to work quickly.

This weekend, my friends and I went to Cinque Terre and stayed on a boat overnight in Porto Venere. It was an unbelievable experience. The water was so clear and the beaches were beautiful and packed with locals and tourists. Two of my favorite things that I liked about it were the pastel colors on houses and buildings and the elevation they were at. To travel to each town, we took a ferry and when we pulled into the dock, we would look up and see multiple blocks of colors stacked together on top of each other. Some would be high above the sea so most of the time, we would hike to see the other buildings up close and to see the water from a high elevation. I would highly recommend visiting Cinque Terre if one were to ever visit Italy.

Porto Venere

Riomaggiore from the coast

Riomaggiore

Spiaggia di Monterosso

Seafood Pizza

This week in class we were able to finish The Corporation, the documentary in which the film went further into the questions of ethics, government involvement, and scandals in the world of corporations. With my group, we got to work on questions in which we were assigned to discuss trade agreements and business involvement with countries involved in free trade agreements. For my internship this week, I continued on working on creating functional relationships to organize the database Circularity plans to use in their future media platform. I spent a lot of time observing their current database, creating diagrams and ideas for changes and thinking about how to group waste codes with users of the circular economy platform. 

Outside of class and my internship, I was able to experience a lot in regards to Design Week in Milan. As the fashion and design capital of the world, being able to experience design week and attend artistic  events was so exciting! Just walking around Brera felt very overwhelming and full of activity. I was able to experience the Hermes Light Show and the Missoni design show. I learned that design week is more about architecture, furniture and home designs for most of these companies less about art and graphic design. This weekend I went to Cinque Terre which is gorgeous. It felt great visiting all the little islands and being able to swim in the Mediterranean sea. This place was beautiful and very colorful, so I think it was worth the 5am train wake up Saturday morning.

Practicum in Milan with an Italian Company

The past two weeks I have been preparing for Assofintech’s cyber security event that occured last Wednesday. Assofintech partnered with CityTLV, an Israeli Fintech association, to talk about the similarities and differences of the growing industry of Fintech in different nations. I anticipated this event being a great networking opportunity and chance to learn from innovative leaders in the Fintech industry across the world. This hour long presentation exceeded all of my expectations. I was tasked with greeting all attendees at the door which was an amazing opportunity to meet new people and pick their brains about their specific professions. The event started at 5:30, however in “Italian time” that really meant the event would start at 6:00 after all attendees were met with and conversed with. I learned about the important connections between the Fintech industry and law. As Fintech is a newly growing industry, it is important to innovate regulations as fast as technology is changing. Data protection through online banking and insurance tech were the main topics of conversation. It was an honor just to be there and be a sponge to all of these impressive lawyers and financial managers who were so willing to share advice and stories of how they got to their positions today.

Social and Cultural Immersion through travels in Italy and Europe

I thought that weekend travel could not get any better than Nice or Zurich. That was until I travelled to Cinque Terre this weekend. Through the IES program, my peers and I travelled by train to Cinque Terre and then boated and explored each of the five uniquely beautiful towns. Colorful towns painted the coast lines of mountains filled with wineries and hiking trails. We spent the day eating seafood and swimming in some of the most scenic waters. Sitting on the beach with some of my best friends will truly be something I will never forget. Following the end of the program, a small group of us decided to stay the night in a small port near Cinque Terre. We rented a boat and continued our beaching and seafood dinners as a perfect break from the long work week. Whether it be a working commute to Assofintech in Milan or a beach trip to Cinque Terre for the weekend, I am constantly in awe of this amazing opportunity and grateful for every part of the program.

Academic Course on Corporate Social Responsibility

Professor Gupta’s class is unlike your typical college course. Rather than a lecture or powerpoint, every Tuesday and Thursday at 9:00 am the whole classroom is engaged in debates and conversations regarding how corporations are affecting our society. Whether that be how companies interact with each other or how companies interact with society, the whole classroom comes together to share their opinions to truly understand the problem at hand. Professor Gupta fosters a classroom where there is an open and safe environment to ask questions and share your true and honest opinion. This environment makes me strangely excited to wake up early and extremely motivated to share what I learned through the homework and assignments with my classmates. What I am most grateful for in this course however is the Wall Street Journal assignments. It is shocking to notice how much more you can learn and understand about the business environment through analyzing one or two WSJ articles weekly. Before this course it was difficult to understand the entire article I was reading, but now I am starting to be able to form my own reactions and be able to understand the “why” of certain business functions. Overall, this has been my favorite week in Milan.

One of the most compelling things I learned in class this week was regarding the agricultural biotechnology industry. Personally, I am a very conscious consumer when it comes to food. I look at the ingredient labels on everything I buy, and try to stay away from most processed foods. The second half of the movie “the corporation” discussed a growth hormone used in cows, that led to many health complications in those who consumed dairy made from cows with this hormone. The video also discussed how the company, Monsanto, came after a reporter who covered this issue on a television show. The company did not want word getting out about this, and used the power of lawyers to get the reporter to step down. I really had to take time and think after watching this part of the movie. As careful as I am when it comes to looking at the food I eat, could I still be consuming things that are causing me harm because the corporations that make them are so powerful they can hide the truth about their products?

In my internship this week, I started to expand on my duties as an intern. In addition to my usual duties of working with bank statements and expense reports, I started to help out my coworkers by checking some reports that they had made. I was tasked with looking over the reports in the accounting system we use to make sure that everything matches up. If there were any discrepancies, I would explain to them my reasoning as to where the mistake could have been made. While it seems small, it feels that trust has been built between me and the others in my office, leading me to take on more responsibility. Additionally, I attended my first office-wide meeting on Tuesday. While I was not really able to understand anything that was said, since it was all in Italian, I got to see the layout of a meeting within Clarkson Hyde, as well as the dynamics between different people in my office. It seemed, for the most part, to be a really open environment where nobody was afraid to speak up. 

After 3 weeks in Italy, I began to grow tired of pizza and pasta for every meal. Some friends and I ventured to a Chinese restaurant, where we had dumplings that were very delicious. On the way back, we experienced something that had never happened to one of us before. Usually, I do not press the stop button on the tram, and it still stops where I plan to get off. However, this time it kept going, and I had to ride the tram an extra stop before going back to Aparto. This weekend I decided to take a trip to Genoa. On the night I got in, I stopped by the beach known as the best place to watch the sunset, and it really was beautiful. There are 3 different beaches within walking distance from where I am staying, but my favorite would have to be Vernazzola beach. Unlike the beaches I am used to in the United States, it is made up of rocks and pebbles, which I prefer to the typical sand.

This week was design week in Milan! Design week is where smaller designers and artists really get to showcase what they can do by having exhibitions, events, and many other methods of promotion. One of the biggest parts of the city that had things going on was Brera which is a little north of the duomo but there is another neighborhood west of Navigli where there are things going on too. My company had a small campaign in this area where they rented a Tuktuk, decorated it, and invited people on the street to experience “a moment of calm” where we would put an Oculus VR (virtual reality) headset on them and have them virtually go on an adventure. The “moment of calm” during the travel was supposed to emulate how the product would make you feel when you traveled because it is all about trying to make traveling less stressful, especially the packing portion. Our boss was gracious enough to let me and the other intern who came from IES abroad walk around and explore design week after we handed out merch and asked people to take our survey which we were trying to get roughly 300 responses for. In this area and in the days that followed we saw many cool designers both large and small (Hermes and one I don’t remember but they had a very large bunny in the middle of all their furniture) showing off their work. During this week especially I got the sense that Italians really value their art and design because it was all anyone would talk about and the city was bustling with different events to go to. 

My coworker, after exploring and finishing our work at the Tuktuk, decided to get an apertivo while it was pouring outside. It usually never rains for long here but this case was different. An apertivo is a premeal drink that is supposed to “wet your appetite” and they are traditionally served with some sort of small bites when eaten in a restaurant. Since turning 21 I have tried to like Aperol spritzes for a long time and I think this week I am pleased to report that I finally enjoy them. This drink is very common everywhere and you won’t see a single restaurant that doesn’t have one on the menu. I have also tried their more bitter counterpart called a “Campari Spritz” but I would not order another one of those unless my life depended on it. I am trying to still learn Italian and have been learning new words every day but I am still far from being a local. I have tried to do as the Italians though and go on long strolls to people watch and not had any specific goal in mind and it has been very peaceful. I have also gotten into reading at cafes to take a break from internship and school work. Tomorrow we are all going to Cinque Terre or “5 cities” where they were all once fishing villages nestled into the side of a coastal mountain, so I am very excited to get to see more of this beautiful country.