Hello again! After roughly a month adjusting to life in Florence, I have learned how to balance an internship alongside my three classes each week. 

Whether inside or outside of the classroom, I am learning, and my courses really help to make sure I learn from my environment and not just the lecture notes. Even though I am learning about the engineering feats of the Middle Ages and early Renaissance in weekly readings, I have traveled to museums and churches in my Renaissance Art History course to really witness the strength of architecture techniques that were originally developed in 1300-1400s. With my painting class, I’ve gotten to explore a museum to better see painting techniques and made the city my inspiration for my sketchbook to improve my drawing techniques that are the basis for painting. In Italian, while we are learning grammar and vocabulary to help us get around, I was able to put those skills into practice with a class trip to “il bar” to order my own drink–an espresso. 

The “class” I spend most of my time, though, is at my internship, where I am a data scientist for ReQurv. This is an AI start-up, and my first experience in the technology industry. The most important technical skill for me is Python, but I am also developing my technical skills in database management software, translation, and prompt engineering. Success in this role isn’t purely technical. Since many people on the team have limited English and I have limited Italian, I must be very patient when trying to communicate. In a start-up, it’s also extremely important to be able to map out the next course of action and try to experiment to make something better. For this, creativity and motivation is extremely important. 

Working in Italy is also generally a bit different than in the United States. Most companies are smaller, so there are many boutiques or family businesses you can support. Physically, this can mean a lot of shared office space, which is how my current setup is. Socially, many small businesses all co-existing also have a different dynamic and follow a different strategy when trying to grow. Rather than always pushing to be the best and the greatest and attract all of the clients, which is generally the narrative I have heard while in the United States, throughout Italy, there are more favors. I actually traveled with my company to a conference as a favor to one of the local marketers who wanted to have his clients better know each other and hoped to expand each of the business’s clientele. While I haven’t seen many start-ups in the United States, to me this was very unique. Between a combination of presentations and simply just socializing in Italian and English, the dynamic was more friendly than competitive.