Introduction Blog Post by Tom Ellis in the International Internship Program for Dublin
Hello, I am Tom Ellis from the Pitt Business School, and I cannot wait to go abroad! I was born and raised in Delaware, and I am in my second year in the business school. I am currently looking to major in business analytics and finance, as well as minor in Modern Greek language and economics. I have a particular passion for data and economics, and I hope to get into those interests later in my time as an undergrad or career down the line. I am the current treasurer of my fraternity, and I have spent three of my semesters as a junior analyst in Panther Equity.
As the fraternity treasurer I have gotten hands-on experience in the business world, organizing events and managing cash flows. With Panther Equity, I learned useful ways to research and value companies and their operations. I was looking for a way to use my past experiences and build on them. I looked at the Dublin international internship program as a way to facilitate my further learning and gaining hands-on experience.
The Dublin IIP is the program where students get to go abroad for a term and get international internship experience. For the summer 2025 term it is around two months starting in late May. The cohort is going to be staying at a college campus close to the capital of Ireland, Dublin. The UCD campus has restaurants, nearby convenience stores, and a bus station that takes you right into town. I am very excited to see the country and the city proper. My grandmother lived in Ireland when she was younger and since then I have heard all about it through her stories.
I even believe this internship will open up my world view and stand as an experience I will look back on for the rest of my life. Going across the Atlantic for two months to live in an entirely new environment and foreign culture I imagine will give me a new perspective to look at life through. I hope to make many new friends and share in new experiences. I was told that often students forget that there is a lot of free time for you to go out and do things, get to know your cohort, and explore the city and the country.
I specifically would like to go to Galway and Cork for the towns themselves. I also want to go to Killarney and Connemara to see the natural beauty of the island. It is a country of great beauty and wilderness even in this age. It is also a place where I expect to meet new friends and make memories with them. I really would like to take trips around the continent while I am there. This can be done on the weekends since the internship program only uses the weekdays.
From an academic standpoint, I hope to learn from a foreign perspective and gain knowledge about business, in particular financial systems and economics in Dublin. Having taken accounting and finance courses, it will be interesting to see the type of work I will be involved in. This program will also give me the ability to practice writing with the deliverable assignments. The blogs are a good way to practice writing and the assignments allow you to analyze the business you are working for in an academic way.
It will also allow me to get hands-on experience in working in an international setting. In particular, I hope to equip myself with soft skills and knowledge that can better my career wherever I choose to go next. Living abroad is a goal of mine, at least for a while, and I would love to do it, but you need a job that can sustain that kind of lifestyle. This internship will be a crucial experience for still deciding if I want to live abroad, and also for my professional career applying for international positions.
Lastly, I would like to go to Ireland in particular, because I have many family ties to the country. I once listened to part of an interview of the world renowned actor, Peter O’Toole. He was asked something along the lines of what is it to be Irish. He said that it was almost the very center of his being, and that when he came over from America, something clicked. Growing up with my grandmother who lived in Ireland and London, these places were talked about as homes away from home. I am looking to live in Dublin and see for myself the Ireland my family knows so well.