My advice to anyone doing a global project is to be open-minded and expose yourself to variety of experiences while abroad – you’re only there for a short time so you might as well make the most of it! Many students have asked me of any troubles or difficulties I faced abroad with my group, and I have said the same thing repeatedly – strategize ahead of time. While there is no assurance that what you have planned will go as anticipated, it will provide you a sense of comfort. There were times when my group and I had disagreements due to the fact that we were together 24/7 (we lived and worked together), but it was good to discuss our concerns ahead of time. Being transparent with your team members is critical to having a successful project abroad – if something is bothering you, express it to your peers! It’s better than bottling up your emotions and allowing it to ruin your trip. My group and I even had a conversation about separating work and outside life; if we had troubles or disagreements at home, we would not carry that into work. It is important to recognize that you are there to consult for the firm you are working with and you must act in a professional manner at all times. For us, this worked out extremely well and most times, despite any conflicts that arose the night before, we came into work and acted as if nothing happened and by the end of the day, we had usually forgotten about the disputes from the night before. I also want to add that you should carefully consider whether what you are disagreeing on is worth it. If it is something trivial, try to be the bigger person and drop the matter at hand. Overall, you will have an amazing time abroad if you make the most of it. I’d recommend trying new things every chance you  get and embracing everything that comes your way- whether its coffee with coworkers on a morning break or taking tours of every beautiful and prominent building in the city. I think most people love the idea of interning abroad in a country like Spain because it gives them the opportunity to travel to other countries nearby, but you should always take a step back and appreciate the beautiful city you are in. For me, 3 weekends in Salamanca were not nearly enough and I only wish for more. Just remember: what you put into it is what you get out!

My group and I really wanted to take advantage of our time abroad and the close proximity for us to travel to other countries and cities. However, once we got our work schedule, we realized it would be improbable to do so. While our workday on Friday was condensed and we got off earlier than usual (around 2:00/3:00PM), it was difficult to find the time to travel. Salamanca only had a train station that could take us to different cities around Spain; however, if we wanted to travel to another country, we would have to fly from Madrid. Madrid, in itself, normally took around 1.5 hours to travel to by train. We knew trying to squeeze in an excursion would be rushed and we wouldn’t have enough time to enjoy our trip. To make the best of this situation, we decided to travel to Madrid for a weekend and explore the city ourselves. We spent our weekend walking around, shopping, and visiting prominent sites. It was great to experience another city in Spain, especially one that was vastly different from Salamanca. Salamanca, as I mentioned earlier, is known for its historical and ornate buildings and is home to one of the oldest universities in Spain. Madrid, on the other hand, is an extremely populous city as one would guess since it is the capital of Spain. The large metropolitan area is constantly vibrant and lively, and the streets are always crowded with citizens and tourists. Our time in Madrid was a refreshing change from the western-like city of Salamanca and reminded me of the large cities in such as a New York City back at home. The people were friendly when we out during the day and at night. I think the main difference between Madrid and Salamanca that I picked up on was the language. In Salamanca, Spanish was the only language spoken; there were very minimal moments when you heard someone speak English. Madrid, however, was filled with people of varied cultures, who spoke many different languages. I found that more people in Madrid were open to speaking either Spanish or English and understood both regardless. It was actually more common for individuals to speak English in Madrid, but this was expected as Madrid is a primary point of interest for tourism in Spain and its population is extremely diverse.

I had the opportunity this summer to work amongst the brightest and most knowledgeable individuals I have ever met. We spent numerous days at work learning what they do as their work evidently helped with out project. They informed us on topics such as Big Data, Cybersecurity, the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and other disruptive technologies in which they either specialized in or were studying. Many of them gave us presentations regarding their work and helped us understand these topics more deeply. It was intriguing to analyze these technologies and learn more about the hidden aspects of it that I would not have considered as a finance major. These technologies are becoming increasingly important in our future and in the business industry; they will be implemented and utilized in coming years worldwide and it is vital for someone in the business field to have a brief understanding of them at the very least. I took particular interest in the Cybersecurity aspect of Deloitte and the work done in that field. My coworker who worked under this department, was also a professor at the University of Salamanca and taught classes on information technology and cybersecurity. He was very open and helpful and offered to meet with me some days before work at the office to discuss the topic more in depth and explain the work he did. I truly feel as though I gained so much from and became more knowledgeable on the subject than I thought possible in such a short period. I want to point out that taking initiative is crucial during these global projects – if I had not expressed interest in these topics or their fields of work, then I would not have been able to form the deep connections and networks with my coworkers in Salamanca. Aside from their intellect and experience, my coworkers were among the kindest and most caring individuals I have had the pleasure of working with. They truly wanted to make our time in Spain memorable and planned various activities with us outside the workplace. Their effort to get to know us better and learn about our interests and lives was incomparable to my experiences at other firms. We all went out to dinner together, watched live music, among other activities as well. It was during these moments that we truly got to know each other and formed lasting friendships. I still keep in contact with several employees at Deloitte, even months after my global project, and they have proved to still be the kind-hearted and thoughtful individuals they were during my time working there. They still consistently reach out and have helped in countless aspects of my educational and professional goals. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to have worked with these individuals and I truly believe they are the reason this internship abroad turned out to be such an extraordinary and unforgettable experience for me.

I took Latin American History as one of my culture/language related courses for the Global Option. This course focused on the history of Latin America from indigenous civilization to present time. We identified the Latin American nations and major geographical and learned how the physical geography of the region has impacted the development of Latin America over time. We examined the varying labor systems, the emerging civilizations, the distressing wars, and powerful national movements that took place throughout Latin American nations. We analyzed social, cultural, and political aspects, as well as any economic development in the region throughout history. Taking this course has shed light to the issues pertaining to the relationships between Latin American countries and the United States. We analyzed several aspects of how international relations have affected life for those in Latin American nations. I was able to develop new insight as to the historical problems faced in Latin America, to truly appreciate the peoples and culture of Latin America, and to evaluate how current issues facing these nations have evolved throughout history.

Additionally, I took BUSFIN 4250 (Global Finance) as my globally focused advanced business course in my major. The course was primarily focused on the 19^th and early 20^th century macroeconomic fiscal and monetary policies. We studied the effects of these policies on financial markets worldwide and how the interconnectivity and globalization of these markets contributed to crises we have seen in the past and will continue to see in the future. Additionally, we examined how international financial markets are linked and focused on their impacts on the global market while learning about the relationships between global financial markets and macroeconomic variables. Although this course was only half a semester (1.5 credits), I felt as though I learned so much from it. I was able to identify specific trends in global financial markets and recognize when these trends were repeating themselves. After completing this course, I am confident that I will be able to draw connections between the concepts I studied and assessed and real world events I will see on the news.

During the second week of our Corporate Global Project Internship, prior to submitting our first draft to management for review, our team engaged in a peer-review discussion to enhance the quality of our document. Once our evaluation process was completed, a final draft was composed and sent to management in Madrid. We then had the opportunity to travel with our supervisor, Leticia Novoa Huerta, to the corporate office in Madrid, Spain to receive in-depth feedback from management on the same project. We worked primarily within the Deloitte Greenhouse with Innovation Manager Hismael Doval. During our meeting with Mr. Doval, we presented our data and research and disclosed our proposal directly to him. He then provided us feedback regarding this and allowed us to further deliberate our topics based on his recommendations. Later in the day, Mr. Doval narrowed our focus and objective and minimized our data down to five to seven topics to thoroughly examine the following week. I found this to be a critical point during our internship as we were able to expand our network and meet others at Deloitte such as Mr. Doval on our business visits. The specific instructions and direction provided by management at this office was unmatched. We learned so much and were able to open our minds to more innovative ideation that would contribute significantly to our final project. I was grateful to experience the atmosphere in not just one, but two, Deloitte offices abroad. I thought it was extremely useful to make note of each individual I met during my time at Deloitte. I reached out for contact information regarding any further questions on our project and later used these contacts to send thank you emails to these individuals at the end of our internship. I think this benefitted me greatly and meant a lot to the individuals I worked with; they ended up requesting my contact information back in the U.S. and connected with me on LinkedIn, greatly contributing to my professional network which I would advise all students to do during their time abroad as well. Throughout our time in Salamanca, Deloitte equipped us with many experiences to expand our knowledge and provided us with limitless opportunities to take advantage of the resources available within the company. Supplementary to our exciting and challenging project work, the culture and environment of both the Innovation Center in Salamanca and the Deloitte Greenhouse in Madrid truly helped shape my team members in I into more well-rounded and versed employees. We were fortunate enough to interact with numerous Deloitte employees who made our team feel welcomed and provided us with many valuable learning experiences.

My time abroad was a truly life-changing experience. I never imagined loving a small city so much – the people were so kind and welcoming and Salamanca felt like place I could call home. Throughout all my internships and work experiences in the United States, I always pictured myself working in a large city following graduation, but little did I know how open I was to the idea of working in a place like Spain. There were several cultural differences I noticed during my time abroad – some which were more difficult than others to overcome. Spaniards’ daily schedules typically began later and therefore, ended later than us as well. Despite having to start and end their day later, Spaniards seemed to enjoy taking their time in their tasks and even appeared more relaxed throughout the day; there was no sense of urgency or stress, everyone simply seemed calm and content. On the more obvious side, the language barrier was difficult to overcome. Despite the fact that some of my coworkers knew English, as a student with a limited Spanish background, I knew this could cause some obstacles. However, this only pushed me to improve my Spanish-speaking skills while abroad and because of my efforts, I feel as though I’ve made connections that will last me a lifetime. I should add that despite the significant differences in working in the U.S. and Spain, I did not find it very difficult to adjust back to working in the U.S. I believe if I had been there longer, there would have been some difficulties coming back to the U.S. It was odd to come home and have to drive everywhere rather than walk, but these differences were easily adapted to. I only found that I missed the city of Salamanca and the people a lot. The individuals I worked and interacted with were not only extremely kind, patient, and supportive, but they have grown into a network of people I would consider friends. Aside from the knowledge and skills I have acquired through this experience, the efforts made by my coworkers are what made this trip truly memorable. Once I returned home from my time abroad, I found myself having to adjust back to the normality of my everyday life.

This experience truly helped me develop a global mindset and advance my universal competencies. Though my experience was brief, I truly understand the benefits of working abroad and how it can open new doors for your future. I was able to develop and enhance my teamwork, communication, and presentation skills during my internship at Deloitte. My time in Spain not only helped shape me into the individual I am today – someone who’s open to new opportunities, eager to learn more, and willing to take that extra step out of their comfort zone – but it has allowed me to see the vast array of opportunities I have ahead of myself and has paved the way in the direction I want to launch my career.

During my time in Salamanca, I was given the opportunity to speak with many business professionals at the Deloitte office to better understand the cultural differences between Spain and the United States when it comes to both employment and lifestyle. After conversing with several of my co-workers, I learned that the work experience in Spain differs immensely when compared to the United States. Our supervisor and Head UX Designer at Deloitte, Leticia Novoa Huerta, educated my group and I on the work-life balance in Salamanca within the first few days of our internship abroad. She began by informing us that employees in Spain typically work from 8am to 6pm, taking a one to two hour “siesta” around 2pm – this was considered their extended lunch break, which also gives working professionals enough time to go home and enjoy a break with their families. Younger professionals tend to take this extended break to spend time with their friends or families as well but instead, they usually go out for a small drink or snack during this period. Prior to my internship abroad, I researched the cultural and social differences between Spain and the U.S. to better assimilate myself in this setting and found the dining etiquette to be quite peculiar. For example, it is extremely uuncommon to tip workers at restaurants or bars – in fact, it is actually considered rude, whereas in the United States, it is considered a requirement. For me, this was difficult to do as I was accustomed to tipping at every restaurant, pub, or cafe I went to in the United States. Although the adjustment to this was challenging, I knew if I had left a tip then it would be taken as an insult to the employee, which was the last thing I intended to do. Moreover, the food and meals were also comparatively different in Spain than in the U.S. As expected, most meals were smaller portion sizes and their eating schedule was something we also had to quickly adjust to. Typically, our co-workers would have a small coffee in the morning followed by “tapas” or a snack around 10am, which they would normally walk to a small café together to eat at. Lunch was normally consumed at the time of the “siesta” and dinner was later at night around 8:30pm/9:00pm. Adapting to this schedule was problematic in the beginning of our trip as we did not know these times were strictly followed. I recall during our first week, my group and I tried going out to eat at a restaurant around 6:30pm and we were shocked to find that not a single place was open, aside from fast-food chain restaurants and small ice-cream or coffee shops. It was also no surprise to us that there were several culinary differences in Spain than the United States – most meals consisted of primarily bread and pork. As someone who is not very fond of eating pork, I found this slightly difficult to adjust to as well.

My advice to anyone going to Salamanca or joining a program in Spain is to be open-minded! You must always remember that you are a guest in their city and that the things you may not normally do may be considered customary in Spain – it never hurts to try to new things!

Our supervisor Ms. Novoa Huerta, as mentioned in an earlier post, was also quick to inform us on the culture at the Deloitte Risk-Advisory Innovation Center – it was comprised of a laidback, friendly atmosphere filled with close friends who had known and worked with each other for years. Despite being close friends, they were all extremely welcoming and kind, and made our experience extremely memorable. Moreover, there was no specific dress code for work; we were only required to dress business professional on days in which the CEO would travel from the Madrid corporate office to visit us. Everyone at our office was infused with the belief that their best work was done when they were wearing comfortable clothes and could relax and think clearly. Aside from this, I was quick to notice that Spaniards always took their time – in both their work and their social interactions. There was not a single conversation I had, both in and out of work, that seemed rushed. Spaniards truly seemed to be able to slow down from the daily stresses of work and life and enjoy things more in the present which is something I think the U.S. lacks and could learn greatly from. All throughout the day, you would see several people sitting outside and enjoying a pastry, coffee, or drink while talking to their friends or their co-workers on their breaks. It was rare to see someone in Salamanca take their food to-go and not sit down and enjoy the meal right then and there. In fact, I can think of a few times during our internship in which my group and I had brought food back to the office and ate lunch while we continued to work on our project in order to meet our specific deadlines. Our co-workers would always joke around that we wouldn’t get to enjoy our break or if we continued working during it. It was quite comforting, in a way, that our co-workers cared about us taking time off from our work to relax and clear our minds of any mental stress or cognitive strain. I should add, however, that I do not think I ever fully adapted to the way the Spaniards took breaks or their work schedule. I personally never enjoyed stopping my work in the middle of the day for over an hour to go take a siesta, especially if I felt my group and I were being extremely productive. I knew this was a cultural norm in Spains so I had to adjust regardless, but I did find it difficult to be productive after our siesta as we only would have 2 hours left of work when we returned. Additionally, Salamanca was also an extremely small city; no one drove to work, and everyone walked regardless what they were going to do. In a way, this small city reminded me of a college campus. Aside from these differences, one aspect of my internship abroad I was not prepared for was the language barrier we faced with the citizens of Salamanca. We were told that the language differences would not be a constraint because our co-workers would know English given that Deloitte is a global firm in which English is the primary language; however, I was not prepared for the difficulties I would face simply ordering a coffee in the morning or food for lunch during my siesta. It was clear within our first week that we would have refresh upon our Spanish more than we had anticipated upon arrival. My group and I each ended up downloading numerous apps and language learning tools on our phones to improve our Spanish, such as Duolingo among others. We practiced our Spanish by speaking with our coworkers and whenever we went out with Salamanca natives. I think we learned the best by truly integrating ourselves in their culture and language and by pushing ourselves to speak Spanish every chance we get. By the end of our internship, however, we had all greatly improved our Spanish-speaking skills.

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I participated in the Corporate Global Projects during the summer of 2019. I was given the opportunity to live in Salamanca, Spain and intern at Deloitte with 3 other students from Ohio State University. Our role as Risk Advisory – Innovation Interns would be to assist employees at the Innovation Center on a consulting project that would begin when we arrived. My team and I were given our project scope a few months before our internship abroad, which consisted of background information for us to begin our ideation process. We were responsible for utilizing Deloitte’s Risk Management Model and analyzing its impending function in coming years as the advancement of disruptive technologies including Blockchain, Internet of Things, Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence are likely to supersede. We were clearly told, however, that this was not an IT project, but rather a global project with content in marketing, investigation of new technologies, and customer and sales analyses. Taking this into consideration, we knew we would be covering various topics including marketing, finance, and sales analysis and it was our job to be knowledgeable on all aspects of these departments at Deloitte. Most of our time spent before traveling abroad involved conducting in-depth research on these technologies to better understand our project scope. We implemented our ideas into Deloitte’s Risk Management Model as aforementioned and further analyzed the research Deloitte had conducted on disruptive technologies to get an all-encompassing analysis for our scope. We wanted to support risk management with innovative ideation to the best of our ability and informing ourselves on these key topics was crucial to our success. Majority of our research was shared and discussed within the group and we were able to collaborate well together to keep each other informed throughout the process. Our project scope did vary slightly when we were told our job functions once we got to Spain – we were to assess any and all potential risks and ramifications of disruptive technologies on Deloitte’s clientele. While many resources we used in our final project deliverable were provided to us by Deloitte once we got to Salamanca, our previous discussion and research benefitted us greatly in that it aided to a more comprehensive understanding and validated our knowledge on the topic at hand when senior management asked questions regarding some of our final results. We put in significant amounts of work and research into the project scope ahead of time and it truly made the difference while we were abroad.

Overall, interning at Deloitte and consulting for such a prominent firm has helped me grow both personally and professionally. I found that this work broadened my global competencies, knowledge and skillsets as I worked with a diverse group of individuals. I learned to embrace and welcome all ideas, regardless of whether or not you agree with them and have become a more open-minded and patient individual. I truly believe this experience has taught me to work well with all types of people and has adequately prepared me to work in the real-world.

Developing a base knowledge and understanding of the main cultural differences in Spain and the U.S. beforehand was something that I believe truly benefited me; however, I also believe that one can only adapt to these cultural differences through hands-on and in-person experiences. I would advise anyone studying, interning, or traveling abroad to research as much as they can on the distinctive traditions and cultural aspects of their host country prior to going abroad. I found that simply browsing the web and focusing on current events and news in Spain to be extremely helpful. It is crucial to acknowledge and understand these dissimilarities if one wants to effectively network and do business abroad. The best way, in my opinion, to network with individuals in your host country is to recognize and concede to both the professional and social distinctions of your host country prior to holding any conversations with your employers or coworkers. For example, in Spain, it is common for a female to greet a male with a kiss on each cheek (and vice versa) – this is normal in both professional and social settings. It is considered unusual and sometimes rude to shake hands when meeting someone for the first time. If you were unaware of this aspect of the work and social life of Spain, you could potentially make a poor first impression before even getting the chance to introduce yourself. This happened with one of my group members during our time abroad; however, our coworkers were familiar with our customs and cultural norms which remedied the interaction and prepared my group member for the next interaction he were to have with other Deloitte employees. I also think it is important for one working abroad to make an effort and show interest in the lives of their coworkers or those they are meeting for the first time. Understanding that the other individual is most likely just as nervous about the interaction is imperative to making a deeper connection. I found that taking initiative and asking many questions about the work others did at the Deloitte office – many of whom I did not even work under – eased any discomfort on both ends and helped transition conversations smoothly. I firmly believe that understanding the cultural differences of your host country is crucial to landing success while abroad. It is vital to make yourself comfortable with these dissimilarities prior to working and living abroad. If I had not researched and studied these differences before traveling to Salamanca, I truly believe I would not have been able to flourish as quickly as I had. Doing so allowed me to build meaningful and lasting connections with my coworkers and resulted in such a profound and extraordinary internship experience in my both my career and life in general.