Hej! I’ve been at home for around a week now and have been able to properly process and am ready to reflect on my summer abroad. First I would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout the course of this program, everyone at the Pitt Global Team, all of the people at Absolute Internships, The scholarship donors who have financially contributed to my life changing experience this summer, my family for all they have done, and all of the colleagues and friends I have met and worked with throughout this summer. I truly had an unforgettable experience here in Stockholm and in this final blog post I intend on summarizing it and all of the highlights of the trip.

My time in Stockholm began in the early days of June, I entered the program knowing nobody and came to Sweden very blind, pretty much the only thing I knew I would be doing coming into the program would be interning at Boulebar but even past that I had little insight on the expectations of the internship. When arriving at the accommodations in Stockholm, I met my roommate and soon met many others during the arrival dinner that I would become friends with throughout the program. We got a couple of days to settle into Sweden before starting our internship which was very helpful and helped me gain my bearings on the city and learn all about some of the history of it too. Before I touch on the internship part of the program and all of the invaluable experience and successful work I was able to complete over the course of the summer, I’d like to talk about all of the extra excursions, mixers, and day trips that were offered through absolute internship.

First the weekly intern mixers they offered. Our program coordinations would host weekly mixers where all of the interns from different schools all around the country could share a casual environment usually in a public park or famous location in Stockholm. This was the best way to have great conversations and get to know people in the program and is also where I made most of my friends in the program. We also had a couple of day trips to museums or fun activities in Stockholm, the first being to the famous Vasa Museum in Sweden which was entirely dedicated to showing the original Vasa ship which was built and sailed its only voyage in the waters of Scandinavia before sinking during the first couple of hours of the voyage. It was eventually recovered and brought to Stockholm where the museum is today. The day trips like this were a really great way for me to see more of the city while also getting to go to museums and places I probably wouldn’t of gone to given my busy work schedule. It was nice to have select days dedicated to going places that were pre planned and highly organized.

We also had two weekend trips, the first being to Gothenburg which is the 2nd biggest city in Sweden and is on the western part of the country. We got to stay at the biggest hotel in the city and go to the famous Amusement park right across the street, we also got a completely free day to see the city and tour ourselves around it. Gothenburg was much smaller and less busy than Stockholm which was a nice change of pace and overall a great weekend. Our second weekend trip was to Helsinki, Finland. We took an overnight cruise to Helsinki which was amazing. We could sit out on the outside of the ship and see the archipelago islands on the outskirts of Stockholm which was absolutely beautiful. The cruise ship also had plenty of activities and things to occupy our time so it really did go by fast. The day after we arrived in Helsinki and got a walking tour of the city, they showed us the Orthodox churches in the city and the vast market which sold many finnish dishes, souvenirs, and other interesting things. We really got to see the important sights in Helsinki in our brief time there and we also were able to find a beach to spend some time swimming and relaxing at.

Now I will discuss the actual internship portion of this trip. My internship at Boulebar was a really amazing experience. It was my first professional work experience and I really didn’t know what to expect going into it. My understanding of the specific assignments I would be completing was unclear going into the internship but as soon as I arrived I was absolutely not expecting the level of hospitality and welcoming I received from my colleagues. Everyone seemed super eager to have me there working and helped to ensure I felt as at home and comfortable as possible. During my first week I was given a bunch of onboarding assignments to do specifically to complete during the course of the first week. After the onboarding process was done and I felt pretty settled into the internship I began working on my actual assignments for the program. Throughout the next 7 weeks of the program I was able to learn so much about the supply chain industry and complete several assignments which increased my knowledge in logistics. Some of the biggest assignments during my program which I was able to complete were creating a Purchasing Guideline for general managers when making purchases from non-procured suppliers, doing research and sourcing suppliers for a few products that are crucial to daily operation in their restaurants (tableware and staff uniforms) and working with the companys scheduling system to edit permissions which dove into a more technical aspect of working with systems in a much different way than I expected when going into the program.

I was also able to observe some important analytics and trends and interpret the sales system the company used to track product usage, pricing, purchasing, and efficiency. I definitely was overwhelmed with this aspect of the internship at first as the analytics weren’t exactly easy to interpret but effective communication and asking my colleagues who were familiar with the system made it easy to understand any questions I had. I also got to work closely with the CMO and Product Manager of Boulebar who mentored me and taught me about their respective industries. I got to gain invaluable insight into different upper level positions at the company and look at what a day to day looks like for them. They had me attend meetings, seminars, and just shadow their different duties throughout the day. I really appreciated that they were so willing to have me shadow them and learn about many very interesting things that contribute to Boulebar running as smooth as it does. Throughout my time working at Boulebar I got to talk in depth with many of my colleagues about their lives and ask them questions about Swedish culture and their upbringing that you wouldn’t normally ask a random person on the street. They were also very interested in my life in the United States and what that was like as many of them had never really had extended experiences talking with an American before. Overall my time at Boulebar was amazing. I really am appreciative of all of my colleagues for making my first work experience a really positive one where I really felt welcome and enjoyed coming into the office day after day, even after most of my colleagues went on their summer holidays.

Throughout this program, I was able to gain foreign work experience and learn about how professional work is conducted in Sweden. Throughout this experience I blogged about my time in the country noting many differences in the two cultures. I got to gain invaluable insight on Scandinavian history and culture and was able to visit and explore 5 different countries throughout my time in Europe this summer. I also got to meet great people from all throughout the United States who I hope to see in the future and remember our time abroad together. Overall, my summer was all I hoped for it to be and more. I really leave this experience feeling much more confident in myself professionally as I feel as if this experience challenged me in many different ways that will help me in my professional life. I can only end this as I started it, expressing gratitude to all of the aforementioned people above for all that they’ve done to make my summer a truly unforgettable, experience that I will take with me as I get ever closer to entering the professional world.

Tack sä mycket!