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Hello, everyone.

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My name is Claudia Espinosa.

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And I will be presenting
on my internship in Venice.

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My first three years on Mount
Holyoke all led to the moment

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when I went abroad.

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It was the way I had
always envisioned it.

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College for me meant mastering
a new language and living in it.

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After a four month study abroad
program in Florence, Italy

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through Middlebury
College, I found myself

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taking a two hour long
train ride to Venice

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where I was to continue
my studies in Italian

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and on a different, more
professional environment.

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Coming in, I knew three things.

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I knew that Venice was a
beautiful city because I

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had studied it in
my art history books

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and I had also visited four
years previous to that.

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I also had a solid
language foundation

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and a thorough understanding
of Italian culture,

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or so I thought.

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I at least knew
how to order coffee

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in Italian, which was
something that mattered to me.

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And I knew the words for
trash, street, and city square.

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I also knew what it was
like to be an intern

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and to work an office
job, at least in the US.

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Usually, summer
internships revolved

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around very limited
funding, which would barely

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cover the costs of
living and sometimes left

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me feeling a bit
undervalued, like I

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had to pay someone in
order to gain experience

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when I knew I had a lot to
offer to these employers

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as well as them to me.

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I had the comfort of
relying on LYNK this summer,

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which provided me not only
with the peace of mind

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economically, but the privilege
to explore Venice, and learn

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valuable lessons, and develop
connections during my placement

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without having to think about
it as a monetary exchange.

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And so I arrived in Venice.

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And the moment I set
foot in the station,

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my ears perked up as I was
listening to all the Italians

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talking.

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And I was like, wait, these
are Venetians talking,

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not Italians, because I
couldn't understand the word.

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And I learned that this would
certainly be a big learning

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experience for me.

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Now, Venice is a city composed
of more than 100 small islands

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separated by canals
and connected

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by more than 400 bridges.

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A lot of the
movement of the city

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is done by foot or by boat.

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There are no cars or
buses, and the streets

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are narrow and not called via
or strada like I had learned,

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but calle, the Venetian
word for street.

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A square was not a
piazza, but a campo.

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And I did know the
word for trash,

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but I didn't know
it was collected

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by boat because everything
in Venice is done by boat.

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So the first thing I
did, once I arrived,

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was get myself a transport
card because I would need it.

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So originally, I thought this
was a really big expense,

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but the transport
card really allowed

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me to experience a city in the
same way that a lot of locals

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do, traveling by water.

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So this is the Vaporetto.

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And it's basically a
water bus, and it's

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what I used during my
two month internship

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to get to and from work.

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And naturally, since this is
my mode of transportation,

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it was by water that I also
arrived to my host family.

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And I really lucked out here,
because through the housing

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office at [INAUDIBLE] with
the mediation of Professor

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Svaldi from the Mount
Holyoke Italian department,

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this suggestion got brought
up to be living in this house.

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So coordinator
[INAUDIBLE] got in touch

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with the host, who was a
little hesitant at first

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to host two American
students in their house,

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but eventually caved in.

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And so about two weeks
into the internship,

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it started setting in that I
was not only living in Venice,

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but I was going to work by
boat, and could come home

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to an incredible
historic property owned

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by the nicest, most humble
Italian family you will ever

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meet.

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And this experience
was really a big part

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of the entire internship.

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Because not only did I get
to hang my laundry in a room

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with a fresco done
by one of the most

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celebrated Venetian artists
of the 18th century--

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this right here was
the laundry room.

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This was where we
hung our laundry.

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[LAUGHTER]

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But because this family
really were available and were

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open to real culture
exchanges, which really allowed

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me to benefit when
it came to navigating

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the social interactions
at work as well.

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So [INAUDIBLE] my position
was [INAUDIBLE] University

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of Venice in the
international office.

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I was eventually given
this desk at the corner

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for the last month
of my internship

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as I climbed up
the intern ladder.

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And I was given a
series of tasks,

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including anywhere from
reviewing application materials

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for all of the
international students

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coming in, sending
acceptance letters,

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working with
governmental offices

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to make sure all the legal
processes were in order

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for the international students,
as well as meeting one-on-one

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with international students to
complete their out-processing,

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and then after
their mobility, be

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able to provide them with
transcripts to go back

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to their home university.

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This is all done in the
three languages I speak,

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which are English,
Spanish, and Italian, which

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I was really happy
about and really

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gave me control over the skills
that I wanted to exercise

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during this internship.

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Now, a lot of the adapting
that happened during this job

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was not in correlation
with these tasks,

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but it was more of
a social adaptation.

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And something that surprisingly
framed my internship

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were coffee breaks.

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Now, in the US, coffee drinking
is a very solitary activity,

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usually attached
to productivity.

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You have your coffee
cup on one hand,

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paper and pen on the other.

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In Italy, it's not.

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It's completely a
social activity.

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So I started getting weird looks
when I was going downstairs

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to get my coffee and coming
back up to the office

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because all these
Italians wanted

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me to invite them to go and
have a social coffee break.

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So I started analyzing how
this behavior really played

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into the office environment.

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And I came up with
these three things.

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Coffee breaks in Italy really
develop personal relationships

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between coworkers,
which in turn leads

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to a more pleasant and
collaborative work environment.

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They also give an incentive
to look forward to,

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so work and pleasure
started to mix.

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Lastly, they
provided a structure

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to an otherwise long,
tedious, and boring desk job.

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So what can you
learn from interning

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in a place with
a view like this?

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Through this LYNK
opportunity in contrast

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to what I thought I knew, I
learned that Venice is not only

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a beautiful and serene
city, but it is also

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a place full of
hardworking individuals

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and a lot of movement.

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I also learned that Italian
language and Italian regions

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are as diverse as my professors
and textbooks has indicated.

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I just couldn't get a grasp
of that until I was on-site.

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The last thing is
that an office job

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can be an energizing and
collaborative experience,

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and doesn't have to
revolve around a desk.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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