summer internship – Page 4

Can(nes) I Do It Again

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 entry is by Pauline Schreibmaier, COL ’16

The 68^th annual Cannes Film Festival began on May 13^th 2015, providing its cinephile audiences with new films, ideas and directors, tourists with slight sightings of famous stars and beautiful weather, and businessmen with a market to buy and take home films to their native countries. On the outside, the festival appears to be one of enjoyment- a destination that provides a journey of pleasures and process of commodification for the 200,000 filmmakers, film fans, and stargazers alike to absorb. I am just one of the many people who wake up two hours before a screening to run into long lines, hoping to make it through 4 screenings in a day. I realize how much of a festival town Cannes is- the bus stations have photographs of actors, directors, and producers. Charlie Chaplin and Jacques Tati appear on walls, movie theaters line every block, and the face of the beautiful Ingrid Bergman appears in every store I pass. The restaurants stay open for hours on end, and La Croisette is filled with slow moving black cars holding everyone who is anyone.

As I try to make my way through the multiple reporters, bicyclists, and tourists, I realize that the next 2 weeks are going to be some of the most of the most hectic, exhausting, and thrilling moments in my life as a film student. I watched documentaries, dramas, animated stories, but mostly movies that make you walk out of the theater, sad and distressed. Cannes sure makes you think and feel. Filmmakers from all over the world use their art to highlight social issues and captivate audiences while reflecting upon the international anxieties that lie in the human experience.

Apart from the 30 movies that I had the opportunity to watch, I noticed the peculiarity of the people around Cannes. I’m walking towards the beach and in the distance appear a little carnival with people on pedestals and clowns painting faces. There are half naked men running around, and crazies that are jumping out in front of cameras. A girl has hair down to her ankles and it has become increasingly hard to escape any of these people. Cannes is definitely alive and well. While standing in line for a screening, I take notice of the rather common Cannes specimen, the French Cinephile. This kind of woman always looks the same: a bit older than middle aged, often short and fit, with a nice straw like blonde bob, wearing khaki pants and a button down shirt. She is quite slow to her seat, but is easily angered when she does not get the one she wants. And if she does not like the movie she is seeing, has no problem leaving. If the festival allows for a short break in your day, people watching is definitely high up on the list.

Towards the end of the festival, you realize how special and important it is to watch films in a theater. Films were made to watch in an audience- to feel emotion alongside others, whether it is laughter, fear, or sadness. This is why Cannes was so great, overwhelming, and exhausting. We watched films with large amounts of people. Strangers. People who had opinions about what they were seeing. They would feel the sadness with me as you hear the sniffling in the background, and the booing from some disappointments. At the end of the day, Cannes is a business. And you learn that quickly. The festival is continually changing and doing new things to stir up commotion. These two weeks were incredibly eye opening and I only hope to come back within the next decade and experience something totally new and different. After all, film itself is a forever changing.

There is such thing as free lunch, and it’s growing outside my apartment

This entry is by Catherine Darin, COL ’16

When I tell people I spent my summer working on an urban foraging project in Berkeley, CA, they are typically pretty confused. Once I explain urban foraging – it’s harvesting and consuming edible invasive plants (weeds) growing on sidewalks, yards, parks, empty lots, and other public land– they’re still a bit perplexed. I tend to get asked three questions. Do people really do that? Isn’t it unsanitary – what about dog pee? What are you even majoring in?

Dandelion greens growing on a Berkeley, CA sidewalk. When foraging for dandelion greens, it’s best to look for young, big leaves, typically without any flowers.

To answer the first two questions: yes, there are thriving urban foraging communities across the US, including Philadelphia, and no, urban foraging isn’t unsanitary. Don’t worry about dog pee – it’s water soluble, so if you wash your plants, you should be fine.

My answer to the third question tends to surprise people the most. I’m actually studying Economics. But, although it was a bit unconventional for an Econ major, (it’s not finance or consulting) my summer internship with Berkeley Open Source Food very much complimented my Economics coursework at Penn, and also allowed me to pursue my interests in food and agriculture.

A farmer at a small urban farm in Richmond, CA, showing my internship supervisor, Dr. Philip Stark, mustard greens growing abundantly on her land.

Through an economic lens, urban foraging yields a positive externality on society. When people forage, they are consuming fresh, nutritious plants that benefit health and the environment. Foraged foods are filled with vitamins and micronutrients, and have virtually no carbon or water footprint, (which is particularly important with California’s current drought), and pose no financial cost. One of my research tasks this summer was to try to quantify the economic impact of bringing foraged plants into the supply chain, particularly in low-income “food deserts”. This involved lots of data analysis and academic research.

But, there’s obviously a big stigma attached to eating food growing on the street. The other work of my internship was focused on actually building a supply chain between weeds and consumers, so that the potential benefits of foraging can be realized. I loved this part of my internship. One day I might be visiting an urban organic farm, seeing what weeds are growing there that local restaurants may want to buy to serve on their menus. Another day I may be contacting plant nurseries, inquiring if they carry certain native edibles that could be used in an edible garden on the UC Berkeley campus. Other times I would get to play around with cooking dandelions greens, nasturtium, radishes, and many other weeds, to give people ideas on how ways of incorporating these plants into their diets.

A delicious dish I made with fresh pasta and foraged nasturtium flowers and greens.

I feel very lucky that I was able to work with Berkeley Open Source Food this summer. I think that learning about foraging, which is definitely unusual, has piqued my curiosity as a student and as a person, leaving me very excited and motivated to for my last year of classes at Penn. It has also left me inspired to continue to pursue my interest in food systems, as I am actively looking into pursuing an agricultural economics degree after I graduate.

Limited Edition Cheesesteaks

This entry is by Sarah Schuster, COL ’17

Some interns get coffee. I got limited edition cheesesteaks, chicken parmesan-filled dumplings, and whole-pig roasts. Mine was a job where a second (or fifth) lunch was considered “training” for the big leagues. I was sent to restaurant openings and reported on brunch, and spent my afternoons in the office talking menus and food trucks. For something as mundane as food, it would seem almost absurd to spend an entire summer devoted to the culture around it, but the food scene in Philadelphia is vibrant, energetic, and honest. Yes— we all eat. But Philly really eats.

For this young writer and food fanatic, the dedicated people behind Philly eats quickly became my family throughout my two positions (I wrote for Foobooz at Philadelphia Magazine, and blogged/worked part-time for the demonstration-restaurant, COOK). Each and every person I worked with treated me as an equal and a professional, handed me a knife or a camera, and set me to work.

It was in these two very different settings that I spent my time tasting and writing about food. During the week, I worked primarily in the Philadelphia Magazine offices. I’d call new vendors and restaurants and ask them for their stories, or I’d research little-known pop-up events and write posts about them. When I had downtime, I’d scour Instagram in search of awesome food photos to round up. In the evenings, I made my way across Rittenhouse Square to COOK where I welcomed and served guests, photographed, and occasionally prepped food alongside chefs for the dinners they held each night. Given my time at Foobooz, I had the opportunity to interview many of these chefs in my magazine position, making working with them hands-on all the more exciting.

The learning was often explicit: re-familiarizing myself with WordPress and learning how to properly edit photos were skills that needed honing, and working on multiple projects at once while in the office let me flex my journalistic muscles. Further, the office setting surrounded me with other professional writers, meaning there was never a dearth of inspiration.

Implicitly, I picked up hosting and management skills by throwing myself immediately into work at COOK, and picked up more information than I thought I could ever remember about the food world of Philly. While I’ve lived in Philadelphia for two years now, before this past summer I had very little knowledge of the world on the other side the Schuylkill River. Now I know the dim sum scene at Passyunk Ave, the pizza in Fishtown, and even the brewers in Phoenixvillle. The city opened up it’s heart and it’s kitchen to me, and there were no invites I refused.

Whether it was practicing plating with Jose Garces in his kitchen or grocery shopping with chefs at the Fitler Square Farmer’s Market before blogging late into the night for COOK, my summer constantly offered me new experiences in the food and journalism world that is undeniably central to Philadelphia. I’ll be continuing part-time work at both places in the fall, and longterm friendship, too: if I learned nothing else after this summer, I now know without a doubt that those who eat together, stay together.

And that where there’s good food and good company, there is always a good story.

A Natural Fit

This entry is by Melody Cooke, WH ’16

After living in Florida and California for most of my life, I had very few expectations and reference points as to what my summer experience would be like in New York City and Long Island. In addition, there wasn’t much information online about the program or company I was interning at and even less information about the area I was living in. Nevertheless, I took a chance and I couldn’t be happier with my decision as this was my favorite internship experience by far.

The company that I was interning at was called Hain Celestial. Most people have never heard of the company, in fact I knew nothing about it until I applied. Although the company’s name doesn’t ring a bell, a lot of their natural and organic brands ring a bell in consumers’ ears. For example, they own Celestial Seasonings Tea, Terra Chips, Sensible Portions, Almond Dream, Health Valley and Greek Gods Yogurt to just name a few. In fact, walk into a Whole Foods and you’ll run into one of their products/brands in almost every aisle. It wasn’t until I started working at Hain that I realized that it was actually the leading CPG (consumer packaged good) company for natural and organic products. On the food and beverage side, almost all of Hain’s products are USDA Organic and/or Non-GMO Project Verified along with gluten, dairy and allergen free lines and overall healthier and cleaner ingredients than comparable products. On the personal care side, almost all of Hain’s products are free from harsh chemicals, parabens, petrolatum and phthalates, have 100% vegetarian ingredients and no animal testing. Even though it was a niche and less well known market, it felt great to be working with high quality and wholesome products that are healthier and better for people and their families.

During the summer, I got to work with the Snacks Marketing team on Terra Chips, Garden of Eatin’ and Sensible Portions. I was assigned an amazing mentor who challenged me and awesome team that supported me and gave me feedback. Both my team and projects were a great fit because we had similar work styles and thinking plus I was able to apply and develop my analytical, communication, presentation and collaboration skills on a variety of projects and hands-on tasks. Everyday I had the opportunity to learn something new about brand management and CPG, a field that I’m very interested in pursuing after graduation. I’m very thankful for the opportunity to participate in meetings and work on projects that were actually applicable to my team and Hain’s future competitive strategy. What’s great about Hain was that it was big enough to have a diverse portfolio to work on yet still small enough to have a tight knit team to allow faster execution of plans and opportunities to spearhead projects for Hain’s growth.

Aside from my projects, I also had the chance to attend a sweet potato photoshoot with our communications and packaging team (yes, there is such a thing as a food stylist!) as well as visit the PR agency that we work with in Manhattan to learn about data analytics.

The HR department did an excellent job of organizing events that enriched the program. For example, every Wednesday we had lunch & learn’s where someone from one of the departments would present and answer questions about their work and past experiences. They also took us to the Terra Chip Factory in Moonachie, NJ and gave us a Long Island experience by taking us to a Mets game. Finally, all of the interns from different departments were assigned to a group project in which we presented in front of upper management at the end of the internship. We even had an opportunity to have lunch with the CEO three times.

I was really amazed by the program and how well developed it was since was only established last year. They always welcomed feedback and continued to improve the program throughout the summer. I definitely recommend the program to anyone interested in CPG, brand management/marketing and learning about the natural and organic industry (non-gmo project verified, organic, clean ingredient products).

Overall this was an amazing summer with a great internship that really fit my skills, interests and goals to pursue brand management in CPG. I want to thank Career Services for their generous support from first helping me with my application to finally making this internship and moving to New York possible.

Interning at Department of State

This entry is by Krishnan Sethmuadhavan, COL ’16

This summer, I had the privilege of working at the Department of State’s Economics and Business Bureau (EB), specifically in the Office of Economic Policy Analysis and Public Diplomacy. For somebody who has always had an interest in foreign policy, getting this internship was truly a dream come true. The ability to see American foreign policy being created first-hand was something that I only had dreamed of and the fact that I would have the ability (no matter how small) to shape it myself was really icing on top of the cake. At the University of Pennsylvania, I am studying economics in the College and Public Policy in Wharton and because the Office of Economic Policy Analysis and Public Diplomacy really lies at the intersection of foreign and economic policy, it furthered my understanding of what I was learning in classes in a practical sense.

The Office of Economic Policy Analysis and Public Diplomacy (EPPD) works on a number of highly interesting issues, all of which I had the opportunity to take part in through my internship. The EPPD creates policy analysis for decision-makers and organizes seminars with outside experts to inform rapidly changing policy processes. EPPD also leads the US relationship with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on vital international economic issues and manages the EB Advisor Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP). Due to the diversity of the topics taken on, my role as an intern was part policy analysis, part paper-writer, and part event planner. Specifically, I worked on helping to create the Economics and Business Bureau’s strategic planning document over the course of the next three years. This document lays out the objectives of the Bureau over the near future and moreover, the indicators that will show success or failure of these objectives.

Two things really struck me about this planning document. The first was the sheer breadth that the document covered – nearly every region of the world and as many policy topics you could think of were part and parcel of EB’s plan for American foreign policy. This was a direct outgrowth of the fact that during John Kerry’s tenure as Secretary of State, he made the bold claim that “Foreign policy is economic policy” and that economic policy, short of war, is the way in which the United States will make its mark on the world. The second thing that surprised me was the quantitative nature of the metrics being utilized in the planning document and the number of indicators that existed. In deciding foreign policy, the State Department has begun moving away from seemingly wishy-washy ideas of success to a more measured and measurable methodology. This approach has its benefits and its costs, but on the whole, it appeared to be a commendable attempt at ensuring accountability in government.

Another major issue that I worked on during my time at EPPD was working with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Although I had been aware of the OECD prior to this internship due to their ubiquity as a statistics database on all things in the global economy, I was not aware of the wider role that they play and their attempts to escape the image that they hold as a “rich man’s club.” These efforts include doing things like having Latin American countries accede to the OECD and utilizing a “key partners” framework to engage emerging economies like those of Brazil, India, China, Indonesia, and South Africa. Another key issue in which I was not aware of the OECD’s importance was in tax reform and the issue of Base Erosion and Profit Sharing (BEPS) and the tax planning strategies of multinational corporations. Through my work at EPPD, I got a chance firsthand to see the power the OECD has in determining international tax policy and how jealously it guards it. For example, at the Addis Ababa conference on financing international development, developed nations (like those of the OECD) fought back an attempt by developing countries to create an international tax agency that would be under the United Nations and would remove the OECD’s role in international tax reform.

The amazing nature of my internship was further supplemented by the fact that Washington D.C. is such an amazing city. I had the opportunity to explore the many cultural and wonderful touristy sights that Washington has to offer. During my 10 weeks there, I saw everything from an outdoor French cultural festival to dancing construction cranes (courtesy of Capital Fringe) to the world’s largest Paella Festival! In addition, I got to take a picture with Secretary Kerry along with other State Department Interns and made a bunch of friends both from Penn and outside of it. I wouldn’t trade this summer for anything else in the world and want to thank both the mentors I met and Career Services for making this possible. I hopefully will return to DC in the near future as a Foreign Service Officer, something that my time in DC has confirmed will be my career in the future.