Asking For Something to Do

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding grant.  We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending the summer.  You can read the entire series here.

This blog is by Derick Olson, CAS ’15

This summer, I had the opportunity to work at Capvision, a primary research firm, specializing in industry-specific market research and consultation.

If you study a foreign language, an internship at a company that speaks it is phenomenal. Just make sure that your level is appropriate for the position. For example, in my case, my Chinese would not have been good enough for a position that dealt with clients, but it was fine for casual work in the office.

Capvision is Chinese-owned, managed, and staffed. There was one other westerner in the office. For a time, I spoke a broken, stifled Chinese, and struggled to bring my classroom studies into everyday situations.

But the situation puts everything in your favor. To start, every conversation, meal, and activity is a chance to practice. Co-workers, waiters, and people on the street were all thrilled that I was trying to speak the language in the first place, and were patient and helpful. At the same time, everyone wanted to practice English, so the language barrier was a great way to make friends with locals.

At first, there wasn’t much to do there, I was essentially researching tech stories and writing English articles that would then be translated into Chinese. Not exactly an efficient process. I did find the translation work interesting. There would be idioms in Chinese that I’d find directly translated into English, usually with a comical result. Editing Chinese-to-English translations revealed the choice between accuracy and clarity that every translator must deal with. All this aside, in a couple days I realized that translating memos across departments was not exactly enthralling.

So I met with my, let’s call her Debbie. She had sensed as much, and came up with a longer-term product development project for my to work on. It seemed interesting, but I could tell that it would consist mostly of Internet research and power points. The product was a platform for the expert-consultants, the sources of information that Capvision kept in contact with for client requests for industry info.

I wanted to make something, to learn something more than the newest company trends in a faraway country. I spoke to Debbie and with others, and picked up that there were several programming-related projects in the air. I asked around to find out what languages and frameworks the company used. For the rest of the week, and part of the following, I spent the free moments of the day researching JavaScript best practices and web frameworks. I raced through translations and went through tutorials.

One morning, I found myself in the elevator with one of the heads of the company. We’d spoken once, during my initial “Hello! I’m the new intern!”—spree that first week. I described my situation to him, and we chatted a bit about my interests. When we got to our floor, he turned to me.

“Just go in there and be like, ‘Hey, I’m…I’m a dude.’” he said, and walked away

After a couple evenings of brainstorming, self-reflection, and self-doubt, I took the advice and asked for a meeting.

And there we were. I poured out my thoughts and ideas about whatever topics I had, fully disclosing my experiences or lack thereof, and emphasized my ability to learn. In my case, it was a description of the small handful of programming classes that I had taken, as well as my interest in certain aspects of the consultant news platform I new they had just released.

They’d been planning to develop an iOS version of their platform for a while, but it wasn’t easy to find competent iOS engineers in Shanghai. So there I was, totally inexperienced and under-qualified, given the responsibility for the planning, design, and implementation of a proprietary consultant application.

There will always more work to do. As an intern, I had already discovered the dangers of being too helpful (read: everyone in the office gives you busywork). It was easy to get caught up filling up the gaps for everyone around me. The truth is, that people are always happy to give you something to do.

But the real experience came when I used this truth for myself, by carving out my own project, and showing enthusiasm to push it forward. Interns are in a special position, where the company doesn’t have much at stake taking a chance and letting you define your own goals. A little structure can go a long way.

So, I continued to work through tutorials, small hacks on existing projects, and eventually, the design and implementation for my own app, database, and user-experience. I reached a state of flow almost daily, and often didn’t want to leave after the 9 hours were up.

At the same time, I had a real role to fill. My coworkers treated me like another employee, and we talked about office politics, funny stories, and the best places for lunch. It came from ownership of something and running with it. It led to an incredible experience that far exceeded my expectations for the internship. In the process, I used the limited things I knew to learn more, to figure things out on the job, and felt completely engaged in my work. It all started with a small step, am almost trivial amount of initiative, in asking for something to do.

How Was Africa?

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding grant.  We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending the summer.  You can read the entire series here.

This blog is by Victoria Duttweiler, Nursing ’15

Have you ever been asked a question that you have no idea how to even begin answering? Coming back to Penn after this summer, I have experienced this over and over. I was given the incredible privilege to complete my community clinical rotation in Gaborone, Botswana during the second half of this summer and just about everyone who knew about my summer plans has approached me with an excited “How was Africa?!?!” upon reunion. While I’m certain every query came from a place of genuine interest and desire to hear about my experiences, I was often left fumbling for words. I struggled to compress the entire rotation into a few simple words and was caught off guard when asked to report on the status of an entire continent. Responding with a quick, “It was amazing! How was your summer?” just didn’t seem to cut it. I was often tempted to glamorize my trip or use it to make myself seem more “exotic” or “cultured” than I actually am.   In reality, my summer included far more than my excursion to far off lands and the part in Botswana was more disappointing and challenging than I expected or wanted.

This summer didn’t shape up to be quite like my normal or expected break from school. Past summers have trained me to return home to my close-knit family, find a mediocre job, and spend time off catching up with friends, playing with our dog, and starting (and sometimes finishing) random art projects I stumble across on Pinterest. Although I’ve always wanted to use my nursing degree to live with, care for, and equip people in developing nations, I’d never set foot outside US soil. This summer seemed to be my last chance to make my way off the east coast and see if international healthcare was really for me before entering the “real world” after graduation. After getting accepted into the Botswana study abroad program, my plans for the summer started to take a different form than I expected. I would live in Fishtown with my roommate from school and a family from church while taking my community clinical lecture and lab before heading to Gaborone to complete the clinical portion of the course. While I dearly love Philadelphia and immensely enjoyed spending more focused time with friends from the area, it wasn’t quite home. My “normal summer” had been disrupted by lectures with intimidating strangers, a 45 minute SEPTA commute to campus, baked asphalt that makes the humid heat seem ten times worse, and continuing to develop a new definition for “home” – in short, I was placed firmly outside my comfort zone.

My grip on the edges of my comfort zone continued to slip as the summer clock ticked away. As I boarded the plane that would take me to a country in the southern region of Africa, I was surprisingly calm. But in the days after arrival and getting settled, I realized that I had gotten myself in way over my head in a country I had no frame of reference for, with people I could barely say were acquaintances, in a clinical setting that I had very little working knowledge of. Needless to say, the first couple weeks were incredibly difficult – learning how to work past my stereotypes of what “Africa” was and letting Botswana define itself, how to live in close proximity with people who are incredibly different from my introverted alone-time-loving self, and coming to the conclusion that my presence in the clinic was not only unnecessary, but a burden. I entered the trip with what I now realize was a masked hero complex. From my vantage point as an American, international healthcare was all about us going in and saving struggling countries. While there are is a lot of brokenness in the Batswana healthcare system, I found a completely different and unexpected story at the women’s health clinic. The nurses and doctors were incredibly competent in their medical knowledge and skills, more caring towards their patients than many doctors and nurses in the US, and more innovative and resilient than would be required of most American healthcare professionals as they dealt with supply shortages and challenging circumstances. I quickly realized that I had very little to offer other than an eagerness to learn, time and hands to input data and pass instruments, and a body to get in the way. Despite the inconvenience of our ignorance, they not only instructed us on the logistics of the clinic and patiently explain procedures a million times over, but went out of their way to smother us with kindness and welcome us as family. I can confidently say that the women of the clinic are some of the most passionate, kind and joyful people I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting and working with.

I went to Botswana expecting to be a hero and use my elite Ivy league education to change lives, but left having met the real heroes and with my own life changed. I was incredibly humbled to see my own arrogant attitude towards countries that seem worse off than the US and realized that although we may have incredible technology and training, sometimes genuine kindness and a make-it-work attitude are more crucial than all the technology in the world. I learned that the simplest things are often the most profound, and that God is still present (maybe more present) way outside my comfort zone. So if you ask “How was Africa?,” be prepared for stories of crushed expectations, undeserved kindness, and hope in the face of difficulty from the beautiful country of Botswana.

Back to Beijing

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding grant.  We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending the summer.  You can read the entire series here.

This blog is by Suzanne Mahoney, Penn Design

mahoney2This summer I had the amazing opportunity to intern with the internationally acclaimed landscape architecture firm, Turenscape, in Beijing China. Turenscape meaning Dirt (Tu) + Man (Ren) was founded in 1997 by Dr. Kongjian Yu, who received his Ph.D. in Design from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. Dr. Yu is a legend in the Chinese professional design world and I really enjoyed learning from him and his team working in such a fast pace environment.

I was eager to apply to Turenscape’s intern program after seeing the office first hand during a class trip to Beijing in March 2014. My City Planning design studio led by Professor Stefan Al traveled to Beijing to exchange ideas on Affordable Housing with city planning officials and design professionals of China. I was thrilled to be invited back for the entire summer.

While with Turenscape, I was included in two international design competitions and a large residential development design in Beijing. A majority of my time was spent working with a small team developing a framework plan for Sokolniki Park in Moscow, Russia. This design competition included only ten design teams selected from around the world to propose a cohesive scheme for the large urban park. As an intern, my job was to generate as many ideas and concepts for the park so senior designers could react and respond, ultimately making the final design decisions. This was a great opportunity for me to have fun and explore new ideas, while getting useful feedback from experienced designers including Dr. Yu.

This experience was challenging though to say the least. Between communication barriers, culture shock, bad air quality, and the longest most crowded bus rides of my life, I certainly missed life in America, but that’s not to say I didn’t enjoy my time exploring China. During my summer I was able to visit Tianjin, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. Each city revealed a new perspective on life in China.

mahoney3My favorite experience was a day trip to The Great Wall of China. On my previous trip to China my classmates and I visited one section of the Great Wall called Bādálǐng. This section is completely renovated and packed full of tourists most days. While there, I was even approached to take pictures with some of the Chinese locals. My second experience on the Great Wall was far different. This time around, my colleagues and I visited the “Wild Wall”, a section called Jiànkòu, which is completely untouched. We climbed for hours up and down very dangerous rocky terrain. We had no idea how dangerous our adventure would be. Luckily we made it back to the city safely with some minor scraps, sore muscles, and amazing pictures of some of China’s beautiful landscape.

Reflecting on my summer in Beijing, China, I realize what an amazing time I had meeting people, exploring new places, eating great food, and advancing my career as a designer. I am so grateful for the Career Services grant I received, without which I would never have been able to travel half way around the world.

mahoney1

Learning Diplomacy at the US Embassy Paris, Press Office

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding grant.  We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending the summer.  You can read the entire series here.

This blog is by Jacqueline Heinrich, CAS ’15

Just as many International Relations majors, I have always dreamed of working in diplomacy, but I never counted on it becoming a reality. Especially in my area of focus, Europe and primarily France, diplomatic opportunities are very competitive. Regardless, also majoring in French at Penn and having studied abroad in Paris, I aspired to work in France in some capacity. Both dreams of working in diplomacy and in France were realized to their full extent through the State Department internship program

While abroad in Paris last fall, I applied to the State Department for a summer internship, voicing an interest in European affairs and public affairs. I was extremely fortunate to be offered an internship at the Embassy of the United States, Paris in the Press Office. The Press Office has many components and a hand in much of the embassy’s activities, as it is responsible for embassy’s media output and keeping track of the French media. I felt lucky to be a Press Office intern because I was able to be involved in and learn about the Press Office’s many roles and much of the embassy’s activities.

My days were made up of both consistent daily tasks and a changing variety of projects. Every morning I contributed to the Press Office’s daily media summary, which entailed reading France’s major newspapers, then translating and compiling their commentary on pertinent global and domestic issues into a summary that would be sent to other State Department bases.

Every afternoon was different and filled with varied tasks and projects. One of my biggest roles was helping the social media team with the embassy’s Twitter and Facebook accounts. This included outreach, in both French and English, on serious topics like events in the Ukraine and more light-hearted ones such as the World Cup. Learning to use social media as diplomatic tool was eye-opening and made me realize the impact and importance of public diplomacy. I also worked on projects that were more broadly associated with Public Affairs, since the Press Office falls under the Public Affairs section. Of these, I was most involved in Solar Decathlon Europe, part of which entailed organizing a day that showcased American culture, and commemorations for the centennial of World War I, which consisted of researching the US Embassy Paris during that time.

The Press Office is also involved in the media coverage of events and receptions held by the Embassy, so I often assisted, such as by filming or photographing them. Although I was working during them, these were also special opportunities to be in the presence of important invited guests and to experience embassy-hosted events and receptions, such as the embassy’s Fourth of July party.

Extraordinarily, the timing of my internship coincided with the 60th anniversary of D-Day, which brought President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry to France. Secretary Kerry also visited Paris another time during my internship to meet with Middle Eastern delegations. My main role during each visit was helping manage the press, but I also witnessed the greater work that went into them. Both visits were extremely exciting to be a part of and gave me a sense for the power of diplomacy, which really moved me. I was truly inspired by the work done by the US Embassy Paris during these exceptional circumstances, in addition to what it does on a daily basis.

My internship was an incredibly valuable experience as it opened my eyes to a career in the Foreign Service as well as other careers that overlap in characteristics. This experience taught what its like to work in a foreign city, to use a different language in the office, to work in communications and with the press, to use social media professionally, to work with the government, and most of all to work in diplomacy. While I loved the combination of all of these things and wish I could continue my internship forever, I now can identify areas in which I would like to work and characteristics of a job that I would like to have in the future. This experience has made me feel much more prepared to embark on finding a career that is impactful and that I am passionate about.

Clean Air for 1.3 Billion New Faces

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding grant.  We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending the summer.  

This blog is by Guthrie Gintzler, SEAS ’16

I set out looking for an internship for the 2014 summer in pursuit of something close to my home in Pittsburgh. When I received the offer to be an engineering intern at LP Amina in Beijing helping to reduce pollution, I knew I had to leave home behind; the opportunity was too tantalizing to pass by. Having never left the United States before, spending ten weeks working in Beijing seemed daunting at first. For one thing, I didn’t know a single word of Mandarin; I learned “nihao,” hello, on the plane ride to Beijing. I was thrilled to have the chance to gain experience in the energy industry on a global scale all while learning a new language through the free Mandarin lessons my company offered.

LP Amina is a multinational environmental engineering firm that researches NOx reduction solutions and retrofits Chinese coal-fired power plants with these solutions. For those not familiar, NOx, the general term for various nitric oxides, is one of the main chemical compounds that contributes to smog. Beijing has such bad smog that the PM 2.5 index used to measure air quality had to be extended from 500 to 800. The smog has been traced to increased lung cancer rates. LP Amina is a small 100 person company with a culture that shouts change and innovation. This made for a perfect environment to learn about clean and sustainable energy while making meaningful contributions in the pollution reduction efforts in my position as an engineering intern.

Although I am a mechanical engineering major at Penn, LP Amina placed me as a structural engineering intern. This proved to be a challenging position for me as there are a surprising number of differences between the two disciplines. Instead of designing the mechanics behind nozzles and burners, my job was to design the structure to support the ducts drafted by the mechanical engineers. My main project at LP Amina was designing a Secondary Overfire Air (SOFA) duct for the Linyi power plant in the Shandong District. My company flew me out to visit the site. There I received a full technical tour of the power plant, collected old blueprints, and climbed two of the boilers to take measurements and determine the best location for the SOFA ducts. While a power plant retrofit project in the US traditionally takes two years, a similar project in fast-paced China only takes two months. This enabled me to play an active role on all structural engineering aspects of the project, from creating an AutoCAD version of the old blueprints to checking the structural integrity of my design to support the SOFA ducts and creating material lists. I learned a few CAD software programs including Staad.Pro, which was all in Chinese, that I used to verify the structural integrity of my and other engineers’ designs.

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