Hello everyone! My name is Emily Falge and I am a rising senior here at Pitt, majoring in Global Management and Art History and minoring in French. I am writing this post from Sofia, where I have spent the past few days visiting friends and exploring the fascinating country of Bulgaria. As someone hoping to pursue a career in international business, I am so excited to have the opportunity to live and work abroad! I believe that this internship in Paris will help me improve everything from my professional to cultural skills, as well as help me narrow down which field I will pursue in the future, as that is something I am still relatively unsure about.

Like many Pitt students, I originally enrolled as a biology major on the pre-med track, but after my freshman year, I realized that it was not for me. I decided to pursue my Global Management major as a way to combine my passions with a more practical career path. Business is an extremely diverse field and the required skills can be applied almost anywhere, so I believed that it would be a useful degree to pursue as someone who was not quite sure about my exact career trajectory yet. The decision to study Global Management as opposed to fields such as Accounting, Finance, or Marketing was derived from my passion for travel and cultural exchange. I have always loved meeting and working with people from different backgrounds, as well as visiting places that boast cultures that differ from my own. In pursuing Global Management, I believe I can open up countless opportunities to develop my professional skills while working with and learning from all kinds of people and cultures.

I began formally learning French in middle school, and this year will be my ninth year studying the language. Though the prospect of being able to learn a host of completely different languages at Pitt was certainly appealing, I thought it would be beneficial to build upon my existing knowledge to hopefully attain fluency in the future. Unfortunately, aside from the occasional conversation with a few of my friends who are also learning French, I rarely have the opportunity to apply what I have learned outside of the classroom. It is for this reason that this internship is exciting to me, as it will give me the chance to interact with native speakers and use the language in real-life situations.

In France, I will be interning at L’Apostrophe Hotel, a boutique hotel in the sixth arrondissement of Paris. Hospitality and tourism have always been topics of interest for me, and I spent a good portion of my international economics class studying the industry this past semester. I believe that this will be a great opportunity for me, as it combines the skills I have acquired from my academic and professional experiences. Many of my responsibilities require skills in customer service, administrative tasks, and reservation management, which I have gained from several jobs that I have worked in the past. Meanwhile, my past studies in Global Management should help provide me with the knowledge required for a practical perspective while working in the business.

The IIP was something that I had planned to enroll in as soon as I transferred to CBA. Due to the fact that I switched majors, I did not have room in my schedule to do a traditional study abroad for a semester if I wanted to graduate in four years. Thus, the IIP was immediately appealing to me as a summer program. I also knew that it was traditional for university students to do an internship during the summer between their junior and senior year, and while I know that any internship experience would have been valuable, I believed that the IIP would give me a bit of a competitive edge. Not only is an international internship a rare experience for students to have, but it will also provide me with a strong foundation upon which to start building an international career.

Choosing to complete the IIP in Paris seemed to be the obvious choice as it presented a great opportunity to improve my French skills through immersion. In addition to this, however, I also find Paris appealing for more personal reasons. I have been to Paris once before with my family, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere, culture, and history. Living and working in Paris also gives me the opportunity to explore in terms of my second major, art history. In addition to the more well-known art museums such as the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay, I’m looking forward to visiting smaller institutions such as the Petit Palais, l’Orangerie, the Guimet, and others. In my experience, countries like France tend to place more value on art and culture and make them more accessible to the public, which should be very useful for learning more about works from around the world.

Ultimately, I am looking forward to the opportunities to learn and grow that this experience will provide me. Traveling through Bulgaria has already exposed me to several of the challenges that I expect to encounter in Paris, such as navigating a foreign city, culture shocks, and some communication difficulties with local people. However, I believe that the benefits will far outweigh the costs. I am excited to be able to speak French with my host family and coworkers, and experience the culture of the city through the lens of someone working there. It is my goal to build an international career, and this program will undoubtedly provide me with a great start!