Hello Everyone!

This past week brought many new experiences both in and outside of my Internship! This week’s blog will go through my work week and a quick weekend trip to Lisbon, Portugal!

Internship Update →

The company I work for, Nodis Homes, functions as an aparthotel—an apartment complex for students and a hotel system for their open rooms. Now that the academic year is over, residences like the one I work at often host summer study abroad programs. My residence has a partnership with City Life Madrid, hosting students from the University of Alabama Birmingham.

The program brought a group of over 200 students, and I played a major role in the logistics before their arrival this past Friday. My position with Nodis is Marketing and Communications Intern, and I work out of one of their residences as their marketing and sales department is spread across various locations in Spain and with many employees working virtually. The initial weeks of my position were focused on the marketing side, including market research and a bit of sales through the company’s sales platform. However, this week was more focused on the communications aspect with arranging this program, which I rather enjoyed and is diffrent from expiernces i’ve had in the past.

The company utilized just over 100 rooms for the 200 students. This past week, I coordinated with the program and their interns to stage the rooms with cookware and plates, check all the rooms to ensure they were ready, and coordinate with the cleaning and maintenance crew to address any issues. I then relayed this information back to the program.

I really enjoyed and found this past week quite fun. I got to be on my feet, coordinate with the program, assist in staging the rooms, and be there to answer any questions. I’m a very organized person, and being able to organize and execute larger tasks like this is a lot of fun for me.

Week 6 – Leadership Skills and Style

I believe this week’s questions nicely segue into some of the tasks I was doing this week, as I was coordinating with a team of about six staff members from university personnel as well as employees and interns from the partnered company in Madrid. In my opinion, this was a leadership experience for me, as I was often the go-to person for questions, even those I didn’t have the answers to or which required involvement from other parts of my company.

In these situations, I try to take a step back and listen to the question and then do my best to help. Often, repeating back what is being asked is helpful, especially when conversing in another language and certain things can get lost in translation. I then honestly assess what my capabilities are and share that venerability with who I am working with. Then using my knowledge of the company or situation I provide further resources or contacts for additional assistance, often reaching out to the appropriate person on their behalf.

I think this describes my leadership style well. First listening and not interrupting or arguing then sharing what I can do, and not making promises I can’t keep or taking on tasks beyond my capabilities. Going off of this, not being afraid to ask for help or advice from other sources is crucial as a leader you can always learn and gain something from someone else no matter what position you hold. 

Spain Adventures

This weekend, my adventures took me a little outside of Spain on a trip to Lisbon, Portugal. The trip got off to a rocky start when I discovered my flight was canceled during my lunch break on Friday. However, after a quick search, I found an eight-hour night bus and arrived on Saturday morning at 5AM. Although it wasn’t ideal, I still made it and had the opportunity to explore the beauty of Portugal.

Despite the short time I was there, I found the city to be very colorful, with buildings in a variety of vibrant colors, a style that I have not seen often but really enjoyed. I absolutely loved the food, which, although similar to food in Spain, was very good. Before this program, I had never traveled outside of the United States, and now I can add two countries to my list of travels.

It’s crazy that this program is going by so quickly! I can’t wait to see what the final weeks have in store for me!