Summer in India – SIBC International

I am a rising senior finance major, and am spending the summer living and working in New Delhi, India.  While in Delhi, I am interning in the solar energy division of Zamil Infra, an infrastructure company.  The first two weeks of the trip have flown by.  During the first week I went to a few of Delhi’s tourist attractions.  I really enjoyed seeing the Red Fort. Many of the Mughal Emperors lived and ruled from this massive complex.  

 

On wednesday, the program took us all on a little road trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  Interestingly, both the Red Fort  and the Taj Mahal were built by Emperor Shah Jahan.  The Taj Mahal was amazing. 

 

I spent the rest of the first week familiarizing myself with Delhi.  I explored some of the city’s markets and even navigated my way around the metro system.  I started work at Zamil this past week and things have been going well there.  The company recently built one of the largest solar plants in the world and I have been working with a mentor who was involved with the project.  This weekend, I went with some of the other ND students to Bombay.  It was really interesting, because the city is very different from Delhi both culturally and architecturally.  There we saw the Gateway to India and the famous Taj Mahal Palace Hotel.

So far, India has been a great learning experience.  I am so thankful to SIBC and Frank Potenziani for this opportunity and am looking forward to exploring more of India over the coming weeks.

More posts to follow.

Best,

Carter

Holy Cow, This is India

Hi!  My name is Kathryn Bush and I am one of the four Notre Dame interns from SIBC in New Delhi, India this summer.  I am completing my internship at CanSupport, a cancer and palliative care NGO, and am here with InternshipDesk, a program that sets up a group of about twelve students from the US with various internships.

Coming to India, I never imagined what I would do or see.  The first week of being here, our group was supposed to go on a Himalayan Trek.  I’m not sure if you’ve heard anything about the monsoons in India (there are something like over 600 dead, here’s an article if you’re really interested http://in.reuters.com/article/2013/06/22/india-floods-monsoon-uttarakhand-idINDEE95L02W20130622), but, needless to say, we decided to stay away from North India and therefore the Himalayas.  Instead we went to Agra and got to see the Taj Mahal.  It was gorgeous and looked new even though it was hundreds of years old.

 

 

We’ve also been around New Delhi to places like the Red Fort (built by Shah Jahan, the same person who built the Taj Mahal), India Gate, and various markets.

 

This week I started my internship.  On Monday I got to go to “daycare” where children who are undergoing chemo are brought to our building in the morning where we entertain them for the period between their treatments.  Here’s what it looks like:

On Tuesday I went on home visits with one of CanSupport’s palliative care teams.  It was eye-opening as I was able to witness the extreme poverty present in India but also see how CanSupport is able to make a huge difference in people’s lives.  It was difficult because all of the conversations were in Hindi and the doctor was the only person who spoke English, translating to me occasionally.  My most recent projects have been back at the CanSupport’s office and have focused around correcting English grammar in papers and designing a brochure for a new campaign.  I work with two students interning from Princeton University and am excited to get to know them better too.

I would like to take this opportunity to also thank SIBC and Notre Dame for granting me this internship and wonderful opportunity to see a foreign country and not only as a tourist, but as someone who will hopefully make a bit of a difference in the people’s lives.  I would also like to thank Frank Potenziani for his donations to the program and continued support for Notre Dame and especially SIBC, we would not be here without you.

Until next time, I hope you look forward to my next post (though three more interns from India will be posting in the next few days).

Best,

Kathryn Bush

Traveling all around Spain- SIBC International, Madrid- Part 2

Hello again everyone,

It’s hard to believe that three weeks have passed since I last posted, but I’ve learned that the time really does fly here in Spain, even if the culture is known to be a little “relaxed.” In the past three weeks, I have had the chance to travel around Spain quite a bit, continue my exciting internship, and my family even had the chance to come to Madrid to visit me.

Before I go on to describe all of this, however, I’d like to take some time to acknowledge and thank Notre Dame’s Student International Business Council for providing me with this incredible opportunity. As we approach the 25^th anniversary of the Council, I would especially like to express my appreciation to Mr. Frank Potenziani, the founder of the SIBC at Notre Dame. Through his generosity, the SIBC has the resources to send seventeen students such as me abroad to locations all around the world for unique summer experiences. All of this is in addition to the full slate of semester-long projects the SIBC runs across five different divisions and various other special events and collaborations.  I have truly been inspired by Mr. Potenziani to take the international business skills I have learned here in Madrid and use them to better live out the SIBC’s motto of “peace through commerce” back in the States.

After finally settling into a routine here in Madrid, my family’s visit was a welcome distraction as we had the chance to see many impressive tourist attractions together, just as we would on a family vacation. We toured the Royal Palace, the Prado museum, and even the world famous “Museo del Jamon,” among other sites. Of course, having my parents pick up the check for some meals was quite the treat. We also made day trips to two cities right near Madrid: Toledo and El Escorial.

Toledo is a beautiful city just under an hour away from Madrid. Notre Dame has a study abroad program in this small “city on a hill,” and, after learning the history of the town, it’s easy to see why. Toledo is sometimes described as the “Jerusalem of the West,” and the many religious influences present in this ancient principality make it the perfect study location for the world’s premier Catholic university. Bernie and I actually met up with some fellow Notre Dame students who made a weekend trip from Toledo to Madrid. It was a cool experience to see some fellow Domers in Spain and hear about how the study abroad program is going.

El Escorial boasts an enormous and historical residence of the King of Spain that was originally commissioned as a monastery, a resting place for the royal line, and a school to promote the Catholic faith. Needless to say, I have had quite the history lesson in the past three weeks.

I was also lucky enough to take a weekend trip to Valencia a few weeks ago with some fellow Intrax interns. We got the chance to relax on the beach, eat paella, and swim in the Mediterranean. I also got my first taste of the hostel lifestyle, which I found to be incredibly fun and engaging. There were people from Australia, Italy and the Philippines staying in our hostel, and we all managed to socialize and have a great time together in Spain.

Lastly, things have been busy at work. Besides volunteering at the US Embassy, I have worked two other American Club events in the past three weeks: a networking happy hour and a Fourth of July themed, American-style barbecue. The happy hour was located on top of a very nice hotel in Madrid, with a great view of the city. As it was my sister’s birthday that day, I definitely got some bonus “brother points” for finding such a “magnifico” venue to celebrate. The Fourth of July barbeque was a fun way to experience two cultures in one, as there was American food and Spanish entertainment. Of course, these events were in addition to my busy daily tasks of creating and implementing a data capture campaign, generating various demographic reports, and organizing attendance at over sixty of the clubs events into one coherent Excel table. My internship has been a fun challenge, as I have had to think critically about problems, outline the steps involved in solving the issues, and recommend the implementation of what I believe to be the best solutions.

As we enter our sixth week here in Madrid, Bernie and I have been extremely fortunate in all that we have been able to do. Stay tuned for one more post detailing the final portion of our adventure.

Here are a few pictures of some of the sites I mentioned above. The first one is me on the beach in Valencia sporting some Notre Dame apparel, followed by me at the monastery of El Escorial, followed by a beautiful view of Toledo.

-Dan Cortese

Hello from Beijing, China

Hi everyone,

This is Peilu from Beijing, China writing the blog to you guys. Things have been going pretty well here. I couldn’t believe that four weeks have already passed. Here is the exciting work we did.

Last week, we had a rewarding trip to China Development Brief (CDB), which is like an NGO and publishes a magazine reporting on NGOs’ progress in China. We had an interesting and informative two-day workshop. CDB has kept low profile after the stringent policy in 2007, before Beijing Olympic Games, during which the English part of CDB (as a magazine) was shut down. Now, the magazine is in Chinese and we can only read the English version online. You can tell their low profile by looking at their office, a quadrangle courtyard (siheyuan) in a very narrow hutong without a sign of the organization. Though NGOs’ development has been very rough, it is making progress, especially in recent years. I had doubt on the so-called “non-government organization”, since Chinese government has long enjoyed great power over all fields. For the first time, I got to know all types of NGOs surviving in China, such as GONGO (government-organized NGO). CDB has abundant resources on all areas that NGOs dip into, such as culture preservation, eco-tourism, social entrepreneurship and disaster relief. We studied on the area in which we each interested and made a presentation to the experts from CDB. Since Notre Dame has a program in Guizhou on culture preservation with local NGO, we had a deep discussion on the meaning of culture preservation and how to reach the goal, taking economic development and old traditions into account. Hopefully, Notre Dame could reach more collaboration with NGOs in the future.

We helped modify iLED (Notre Dame’s program oriented towards international high school students) schedule and design leadership courses. We were also privileged to meet iSURE students, shared our experience in Notre Dame and offered them suggestions. They are all exceptional undergraduate students from Tsinghua and Peking University, predominantly rising seniors, going to Notre Dame as research interns. It was great to meet all those people and learn amazing things. I held great gratitude to SIBC for the experience and would like to give my special thanks to Frank Potenziani, who made all this happen.

Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Below are some photos from our visit to China Development Brief:

Peilu

Some great seminars and a return to Toledo

Hello again everybody!

Danny and I have recently finished our fifth week here in Madrid.  In this post I want to write about two highlights (one work-related and one not) of my trip so far and then end with a special note.

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to visit the host family I stayed with when I studied abroad in Toledo through Notre Dame’s OIS during summer 2011.  I have stayed in contact with them since my stay in Toledo and it was really great to see them again.  We had good conversation and ate a delicious homemade paella for lunch.

One of the highlights of my work with Morningstar is the ability I have to attend various investment seminars here in Madrid.  These seminars have been hosted by firms including J.P. Morgan Asset Management and Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management.  Most times, a few of my coworkers from Morningstar accompany me at these seminars, which have provided me with great opportunities to listen to professionals talk about some of their funds and the ideas they have.  Just this past Friday, I attended a seminar given by Allianz Global Investors, which was especially interesting.  One of the talks was about risk management and I was able to look at a part of the talk through a mathematical lens, which as a math major interested in investing was very relevant for me.

Finally, I’d like to include a special note in this post.  The few details of my internship I’ve mentioned in this post and my previous one would not have been possible without the SIBC’s support.  Furthermore, the SIBC would not exist today if not for Mr. Frank Potenziani, founder of the organization.  As we approach the 25^th anniversary of the SIBC, I would like to express my gratitude both to Mr. Potenziani and the SIBC for providing me with the wonderful opportunity to take part in a summer internship here in Spain!

I’ll have another post up in a few weeks.  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer and has a happy Fourth of July!

Note: The three pictures below are as follows: one of my host family from Toledo and me, one of the city gate in Toledo, and one of Danny and me after cooking up some hamburgers in our apartment.

Bernie Gray

Notre Dame Time! (Seoul, Korea)

(Stanford Hall reunion!)

Hi my name is Jungi Hong and I am a rising senior, majoring in accounting and minoring in Chinese. As the participants of Notre Dame Asia program in Seoul, Dongwook Ko, Andrew Hong, and I visited the five major international high schools during the first week of June. We were able to create the presentation more interesting and interactive with the high school students by bringing with us the high school alumni, who currently enroll at Notre Dame, and my good friend Greg Dutcher, who graduated from Notre Dame in 2011 and happened to visit me from Chicago. Sharing our experiences at Notre Dame in sophomore, junior, senior, and graduate perspectives opened the students’ hearts. The Korean students, who are notorious for not asking questions, eagerly participated especially during the Q&A session. We experienced the great potential in teamwork and I realized the importance of Notre Dame network in Seoul, Korea, and I moved on to the next project.

In an effort to strengthen Notre Dame community in Korea, Sydney Yun and I, a newly elected vice president and acting president of Korean Student Association, planned and hosted our first get-together on Friday of the second week in Gangnam in Seoul for newly admitted students. It took us the whole day to find a place where we could make reservation for 40 people on a busy Friday night. On the day of the event, we were so grateful that many people, 37 people out of 40, made it to the event, including seven freshmen and six alumni. Seeing all these Notre Dame alumni again excited me. They shared their stories of what they have been doing at work or studying at graduate schools. We had a “introducing yourself” session, like what we would do in the first day of our classes at Notre Dame. After that, Sydney and I, as a host, randomly mixed the seats, so everyone gets a chance to talk to new group of people. As a result, the event was a success. I am currently planning to create another event, so the Notre Dame students, alumni who could not join us the first time can join.

(For your information, the drinking age is 19 in Korea. Everything we did was very legal.)

(Greg Dutcher, class of 2011, meets class of 2017)

(Go IRISH!! from Gangnam, Seoul, Korea)

Meanwhile, ND Asia team planned to meet with the president and members of MARP, which is the major business organization of top Korean university called Yonsei University, this week. But due to MARP’s recent election of the new president, we delayed the meeting to the last week of June.

This internship gave me the opportunity to meet new exciting people and to broaden my mind, dealing with the upcoming projects half way around the world. I thank SIBC for such opportunity.

SMH International – Shanghai, China

Hello everyone!

My name is Sara Tan and I am a rising junior studying finance. This summer, I am going to be in Shanghai, China as an SIBC intern at SMH International. I would like to give a special thanks to SIBC for this one-of-a-kind opportunity abroad – I never would have thought I would be spending my summer in this way. It’s my first time here in Shanghai, so I’m looking forward to new and exciting experiences!

So far, from my time in Shanghai, I have realized that it has a very different atmosphere than other cities in China. It is a very unique city – on one hand, Shanghai is very westernized and modern, but on the other hand it still maintains the traditional Chinese culture. The biggest difference I have noticed, other than the humid weather, is that many people in Shanghai (even some people in the SMH office) also speak a local dialect that can be a bit difficult to understand.

 

What am I up to?

SMH International is a company that provides marketing and consulting services for mostly American-based agricultural companies such as Sunkist, American Pistachio Growers, Alaska Seafood, and etc. SMH acts as representatives for these companies as it helps them expand their market in China. There are various ways that SMH helps to promote – like holding conventions and developing stronger relationships with traders.

As an intern, I have so far been put on the tasks of creating PowerPoint presentations on Alaska Seafood, performing market research, and translating articles from Chinese to English. Right now I am on a team that is working on organizing the upcoming Alaska Seafood trader conferences in several Chinese cities. In the next few weeks, my tasks will consist of calling and contacting traders from across China to invite them to the conference.

Perhaps what surprised me the most when I first arrived at SMH was its location. We’re located right in the center of Shanghai’s bustling business and financial area and at first glance, it feels like we are just in any other big city in the U.S. Here’s a picture of the building SMH is located in.

 

What is there to do in Shanghai?

For anyone who comes to Shanghai, perhaps the most important thing you must do is try these yummy little dumplings called “xiao long bao”. They contain various types of meat fillings, usually pork, and sometimes crab. These dumplings are the best known food in Shanghai – Sean (the other Domer interning with me in Shanghai) and I stood in line for nearly an hour in order to taste these dumplings and we were in the shortest line! But needless to say, the wait was definitely worth it.

 

During our explorations around Shanghai, we also encountered an interesting event. At one of the malls we went into, there happened to be a press conference of sorts for an upcoming movie with one of the most famous actors in China, Andy Lau, making an appearance. For those who are not familiar with the Chinese entertainment industry, Andy Lau is a Hong Kong actor and singer who is a bit like the Tom Cruise of China. I would have never thought that I could ever see him in person – it was definitely an unforgettable experience!

 

 

Anyways, I’ll be back to update more about my experiences and work in Shanghai!

Sara Tan

Shanghai – SMH International

你好！(Hello!)

My name is Sean Yuan and I am a rising junior studying IT Management. This summer 2013, I will be spending 8 weeks interning at SMH International in Shanghai, China. SMH is a marketing and PR company for various agricultural clients based in the US. During this time I will also be experiencing all that Shanghai has to offer while visiting my extended family. I have been to Shanghai several times before, so it’s nice being familiar with my surroundings. It’s also nice having my grandparents cook for me, too!

The Internship

First I would like to thank Frank Potenziani and the SIBC council for this wonderful opportunity to work in Shanghai. Without them I wouldn’t be in this wonderful program.

SMH provides promotional service for companies like Alaska Seafood, American Pistachio growers, and Sunkist. SMH markets these foods to investors and consumers at agricultural conventions (there’s an annual China Blueberry Convention?) and also coordinates promotional events, such has inviting 2012’s Miss California to promote American Pistachios to the denizens of Guangzhou.

So far I’ve edited media clippings, performed market research, written industry reports, and created a PowerPoint on American Wild Blueberries. I’m starting to get an idea the operations of this company, but I’m hoping to find a more challenging project.

The Dragon Boat Festival

June 10-12 was this year’s Dragon Boat Festival, a traditional Chinese Holiday celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunisolar Chinese calendar. Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia of what typically goes on:

“Three of the most widespread activities for Duanwu Festival are eating (and preparing) zongzi, drinking realgar wine, and racing dragon boats.[9]

Other common activities include hanging up icons of Zhong Kui (a mythic guardian figure), hanging mugwort and calamus, taking long walks, and wearing perfumed medicine bags. Other traditional activities include a game of making an egg stand at noon (this “game” is one that if you make the egg stand at exactly 12.00 noon you will have luck for the next year), and writing spells. All of these activities, together with the drinking of realgar wine, were regarded by the ancients as effective in preventing disease or evil and promoting health and well-being.

In the Republic of China, Duanwu was also celebrated as “Poets’ Day,” due to Qu Yuan’s status as China’s first poet of well renown. In modern Taiwan, zongzi are no longer thrown into rivers, but people still eat them as a holiday tradition and testament to Qu Yuan’s self-determination.”

I especially enjoyed the firecrackers and the festive atmosphere during my 5 days off from work.

That is all for now! Next time I’ll talk about everyone’s favorite thing: FOOD!!!

Sean Yuan

Social Entrepreneur Corps- Ecuador

My name is Kyle Dougher and I am a rising junior studying Economics. In the weeks leading up to my departure for Ecuador I had a lot of uncertainty about the trip. I had never been outside of the United States, had not taken a Spanish class since elementary school, and did not know exactly what I would be doing as a Consultor Communitario with the Social Entrepreneur Corps. Being one who likes to feel well prepared for everything, I knew my trip to Ecuador would be a personal challenge. After three weeks of Rosetta Stone Spanish I had developed a not-so-impressive mastery of informing people that I have three bicycles but I knew such a level of Spanish would be insufficient while living in a country whose inhabitants speak little English. After reading some books by Muhammad Yunus, the father of microfinance and microcredit, I saw a lot of promise in the models suggested in the book but still was not sure what my role would be in implementing similar ideas in Ecuador.

Despite my initial concerns, the past two weeks have alleviated my uncertainty. Between four hours of daily Spanish classes and conversing with my host mom my Spanish comprehension has grown substantially. Through four hours of daily classes on micro-consignment theory I have also been able to gain a better understanding of the type of work I will be doing. The rest of my time has been spent exploring the gorgeous colonial city of Cuenca and experiencing the rich Ecuadorian culture the city has to offer. Between enjoying the sweets and fireworks during the weeklong festival of Corpus Christi, visiting museums about the Ecuadorian War of Independence, and sampling the local delicacy of cuy, every day in Ecuador has been a learning experience on many levels.

After two weeks of classroom preparation, we are finally set to depart to help implement the micro-consignment model at field locations with entrepreneurs. The idea behind micro-consignment, like microcredit, is to offer individuals the opportunity to make use of their inherent entrepreneurial talents to earn enough money to enjoy a dignified lifestyle. Whereas microcredit offers access to financial capital, micro-consignment groups seek to eliminate some of the risk involved with taking out loans by acting as suppliers and providing entrepreneurs with products that the entrepreneur pays for only once the product sells.

In the coming weeks I will be going out to our field location in Zamora and will be working with some of these entrepreneurs as they market and sell their products. These products include reading glasses, solar lights, vegetable seeds, and small stoves. I am extremely excited to begin seeing the model implemented in these communities and assisting the entrepreneurs with their sales.

 

One of the candy stands during Corpus Christi.

Statue celebrating Ecuadorian Independence in Giron, Ecuador.

3 out of the 4 Domers in the Social Entrepreneur Corps.

Cody Gilfillan – Social Entrepreneur Corps, Ecuador – Summer 2013

Hola,

My name is Cody Gilfillan and I am a rising junior studying economics and computer applications. This past spring as I was contemplating what I wanted to do this summer, the one thought that kept going through my mind was, “Anywhere where I can make a positive impact”, and Social Entrepreneur Corps seemed and is turning out to be the perfect place to accomplish that. In short, we are working to give local Ecuadorians living in rural areas the opportunity to be an entrepreneur selling various “social goods” including: reading glasses, solar lights/flashlights, waterfilters, and prepackaged planting seeds. 

The first two weeks have truly flown by the second I got off the airplane. As a French student in college, I felt slightly nervous living in a Spanish speaking country, but between the intensive Spanish classes in the morning to the long dinner conversations with our homestay families at night, I have been able to catch on fairly quickly. I have had two great roommates so far who are both very good at Spanish, but in two days we are traveling to a different city where we do not have roommates, so I am excited, but also nervous, to put my Spanish skills to the test!

One of the coolest things about this internship so far has been the bonding between the 25 Social Entrepreneur interns. While there are 4 of us from Notre Dame, 21 interns are from other schools. The broad range of backgrounds and skills we all have individually will collectively make our group a strong team and by the time we have left, we surely will have left a positive footprint. 

Two keys lessons I have learned so far that I will continue to take with me and make a habit of are:

1) Actively listen more – By necessity, I have had to give my undivided attention to know what is going on when someone talks to me in Spanish, but I have found that it leads me to answer others with more thoughtful replies, whether answering someone in Spanish or English.

2) Everybody has a story and everybody’s story is important – If you truly show interest in someone else’s life and experiences, you can make a more meaningful connection with them and their culture/background, and you can also learn so much from them. My roommates and I have essentially taken a Latin American history class solely from our conversations at dinner with our homestay family, which has really helped to expand my worldview.

Ecuador has been an incredible experience so far and I am ready to take the skills we have learned from the SEC leaders and apply them to “The Field” for the next 6 weeks!

Cheering on the Ecuador soccer team against rival Peru.

A little fun with the alpacas!

Kyle Dougher and I – The extreme hikers!