Hi! My name is Eli Jones. I’m a senior Media and Professional Communications major with a minor in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. I’m in a few extracurricular activities at the university, including the ethics and debate club, Students for International Labor Solidarity, a comedy show writing team, and an a cappella group where I serve as the music director. Outside of school, I like to stay active by playing soccer and skateboarding regularly. This internship is the first time I’ve done something like this in my professional career. The only job I’ve had is as a part-time cashier at a Wegmans grocery store near my high school.

The Program I’m traveling for is the International Internship Program in Dublin, Ireland. I’ll be in Dublin for two months, where I will be interning at an incentive marketing company called Allgo Rewards. The internship is unpaid on account of the six credits I’ll be putting toward my major after the successful completion of the program. There’s an internship requirement for the major I’ve chosen, but I was also interested in pursuing this program because of the time I would be afforded at the end of my senior year. Specifically, completing this program means that I would be able to take my last semester at Pitt as a part-time student. Not only is this a financially favorable option to me, but fewer classes would enable me to pursue job opportunities or work another internship with less stress than a full school schedule usually brings. 

On that note, I expect that this internship will help me greatly when it comes to my professional pursuits. I haven’t done an internship or anything I’d call impressive before right now, so it will be great to finally get some experience working in a professional environment. My hope is that the experience I acquire during this internship will also make me more confident when applying for jobs in the future. I wouldn’t say that I currently have a great understanding of my professional skills or weaknesses. I know the classes I’ve excelled at and the concepts I struggled with, but I don’t think those are necessarily indicative of the type of worker I can be. In any case, this Internship will give me a better idea of what I can bring to the table than anything else I’ve done. 

Another Reason I’ve chosen the internship I have is that my career aspirations are relatively open-ended. I don’t know exactly what I want to do or what industry I’d like to work in, so this internship will help narrow down possibilities. 

The reason I applied to intern in Ireland (instead of someplace more local) is because Ireland seems like the coolest country in the world to me. I think my infatuation with the country started when I watched the series “Normal People” on Hulu. The show was set in Ireland, so they filmed at various notable landmarks and sites that I’m interested in visiting. The show’s main characters, for example, attended Trinity College together. The show isn’t the sole reason I’d like to see the country by any means. I’ve done a little research on the landmarks, the culture, and landscapes, and everything I’ve seen has made me want to experience the country for myself. 

I’m also interested in visiting Ireland because I may want to emigrate from the US someday. The thought of living in another country has become incredibly attractive to me in recent years. I don’t necessarily hate living in America or anything like that, but some places seem like they would be less stressful to live in than others. I’m also generally anxious about providing the best life for the people around me if I end up having a family. If think that the quality of living might be better somewhere else, I would seriously consider moving. 

I think the thing I most hope to gain from this experience is self-confidence. I’ve already spoken to the confidence this program will hopefully provide me in my professional pursuits, but the type of self-confidence I’m writing about now has to do more with my personal life as a young adult. I will be living in a foreign country and working at an internship, which are two things I’ve never done before. By the end of the program, I want to look back and be proud of all that I accomplished. I don’t know if it’s corny to say, but I’m especially excited about everything I have yet to experience that I haven’t even considered ( because I’m sure there’s at least one surprise waiting for me on this trip).

All that being said, I can’t remember the last time I was so excited to do anything! I think it’ll be a great time.