After touching down in Dublin, we settled into our rooms and took a tour of the expansive University College of Dublin campus that we would be staying at for around two months. They housed us in a nice single unit dorm with three other roommates. The campus had two gyms and plenty of food options from an on campus, fairly cheap, grocery store to an amazing chicken place. So far I have not cooked at all and went to the chicken place, Mickeys, three times! There are grocery store options also within bus distance. Before the end of the weekend and the start of the internship, I am going to start cooking, I hope.

This past Friday, the team at EUSA booked a bus tour of a popular nature park near Dublin and the medieval town of Kilkenny. The park, Glendalough, was absolutely beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that my friends and I were late for the bus on our way back from the long hike we were on. Attached is a photo from the hike. Very thankfully, they waited for us. Our next stop was Kilkenny, a nice town with a small river running through it. The town was known for its large castle and many shops. This too was an amazing stop where we got a small glimpse of the southern Irish hinterland.

The internship I am in could be classified as a multitude of industries. Working for the Center of Economics, Policy, and History, I will be involved in a research project focused on media effects on financial markets. This can be classified as the higher education industry, university research, economic and social policy research, and even as a think tank of sorts. All of these kinds of industries revolve around a central theme of academia and its influence on economic policy.

The academia industry requires many skills and strengths. Thinking logically and experience in research is a great strength and skill. Many college undergraduates do not actually get a good chance to practice and perfect this critical skill., contrary to popular belief. One needs proficiency in designing, conducting and analyzing texts and data. They also need to know how to write and create scholarly papers with proper citation and argument organization without bias. Another main skill that would be required is the ability to practice interdisciplinary thinking and problem solving. These are necessary for actually addressing the real-world issues that research institutions grapple with. Now, to produce thoughtful, complete, insight, one would need to know how to translate their theories and steps to solve world problems into specific policy. This includes a multitude of skills within itself, one has to know how to communicate, lecture, and teach, also how to defend their arguments in live debates. This includes writing for non-academic audiences, the most important viewer. Now these are more hard skills that one would need to learn how to do and master throughout their career. These also come with some important softer skills like time management, project management, collaboration, networking, and even cultural awareness. In a global or foreign setting especially, an understanding of the differences and uniqueness of a certain environment is critical for adapting one’s skills and strengths to be more successful.  

In order to understand the relevant skills and strengths for success in Dublin Ireland, one has to immerse themselves in the history of the people and the current political and economic situation. Economically, the country is a part of the European Union and is undergoing a housing crisis. One would need to understand thoroughly Irish and EU Policy, specifically being able to conduct research aligned with national/EU funding goals. There is also cross border collaboration between Ireland and the British owned Northern Ireland. North-South academic integration is an ongoing trend of attempting to unify the two states. A global-local perspective can be applied to Irish issues, with caution, as the Irish practice a form of ethnic pride which can especially be seen in the sports they play. Gaelic sports are operated in a socialist fashion where the tickets are not sold, but instead given to club members. One would have to be born in an Irish county to play a Gaelic sport on the national level. Moreover, players cannot be traded. Therefore, the teams are treated as tribes and families, where players are culturally linked to the teams they play for. Dublin is a cosmopolitan city with rapid economic growth and valuable free market policy, creating an environment with large potential. To navigate this capital in the academic industry, where policy is being created, one needs a multitude of skills and strengths to guarantee their success, and even then, still needs to be able to keep up with the cleverness and charm of the locals.