August 13, 2009

My summer in Glasgow has, sadly, finally come to a close.  The last night was a heart-wrenching final ceremony for which all the American males rented kilts.  After extracting promises to visit us at Columbia, we said goodbye to our Scottish friends, and the American contingent all went our separate ways the next morning, some staying in Scotland, some headed to Europe, and the rest back to our homes in the US.  All of us, though, are taking the great experiences we had in Scotland away with us. 

After we initially got our assignments, I was skeptical as to how much we could help the companies, seeing as no one in our group had any experience whatsoever in either of the two industries our companies were in.  I completely underestimated, however, the amount that we could learn from putting 8 hours a day into researching these fields.  Most of our group are now experts on both hotel information systems and Eastern European particle board manufacturing.  Leading a project was also a learning experience for me in time management, work delegation, and conflict resolution.  EDGE is definitely unique in this manner; I can't think of any other internship where students are in charge of leading a project.  

EDGE Awards - Team Platinum Spark and Clients (l-r) Stephen Connachan, Aquapac, Eileen Newman, The Beardmore Hotel and Conference Center, Christopher Elizondo, SEAS ’11, Bronagh Bell, The Beardmore Hotel and Conference Center, Akhil Mehta, SEAS ’11, Clair Nicholson, University of Glasgow, Precious Davies, St. Thomas Aquinas School, Caroline Henderson, University of Glasgow, Emma Barclay, Notre Dame High School.

I also picked up a wee bit of Scottish culture during the 8 weeks.  The Scottish work culture is very different from the American one.  In Scotland, I found that there was not the clear division between personal and professional as there is in America.  In addition, the definition of a Scottish all-nighter means working until midnight, which gave many of the Columbia students a good laugh (especially those who had to pull REAL all nighters at the end of the program!)  The Scots, in their pre-departure training, were told to expect a bunch of neurotic workaholics coming from the American side, while we were told expect a more lax Scottish work ethic (or of a perceived lack thereof).  I think the end result ended up somewhere in between on both ends - most everybody pulled their weight to get a final product that we hope will help our companies into the future.  While I haven't mastered the Scottish accent, I'll be keeping some Scottish terminology in my vocabulary, and it's still sort of disconcerting for me to see people driving on the right side of the road.

Exploring Scotland over the last eight weeks was an amazing experience.  This year's cohort was always willing to try new things, whether it be hiking up mountains (we were always going uphill!) or deciding on a whim to play paintball in the Scottish marshlands.  I found myself saying "why not?" to experiences that I would almost never agree to in New York.  I hope that this is something that stays with me; I've quite enjoyed it.  It's these experiences - among them a Celtic FC football game, Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland, climbing Ben Lomond, a tour of a whisky factory in Edinburgh, that I will remember the most in the future.  But more than the sights, I'll remember the friends I made who shared the experiences with me.  I think the toast made the first weekend was very prophetic of the summer - "To cross-Atlantic friendships, and the best summer of our lives!"

With our time in Glasgow rapidly coming to a close, we're looking to take advantage of every minute we have left.  Our work deadlines are approaching quickly, with presentations on the 4^th and 5^th of August, and the program ends soon after.  With our business plans all presented on July 17^th, we have turned our focus solely to our two consultancy reports.  With our projects, that means we have to nail down price quotes from suppliers who are bidding for what our clients require.  The suppliers we're dealing with range from Estonia to China, so sometimes the language barrier is a challenge, but it's all part of the learning experience.

Along with calling around the world, we're starting to write our final reports and prepare our presentations.  I've prepared one of these in a previous internship, and they are no easy feat.  I generally think of them as a giant, fifty-page physics lab report, with "corporate" instead of "science" titles, for example, "Methodology" instead of "Procedure" and "Executive Summary" instead of "Abstract."  Typing fifty pages on anything is a daunting task, but writing them in a standalone report that represents six weeks of work makes the task seem even more challenging.

We've been making good use of our time off in recent weeks as well.  After a trip to Edinburgh to see the Scottish Parliament, a group of us stayed in the city after and climbed Arthur's seat, where we could see the whole of Edinburgh. The climb was a bit strenuous, but we managed to make it up in one piece.  The view from the top was stunning; we had a great panoramic view of the whole city.  It was a great stress relieving activity the day before our business plan presentations.

The program's long weekend was last weekend, the 18^th-21^st of July, and the Columbia students traveled to varying parts of the UK and Ireland.  I went to Belfast for 2 days and Dublin for 1, and had an amazing time.  We had a native tour guide in Belfast in Richard Gaffikan, a University of Glasgow student in our cohort here.  On Sunday, he kindly took us up Cave Hill, where we could see over all of Belfast, then drove us to the beautiful Northern Irish coast, where we walked across the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge onto a peaceful island overlooking the water and the coast.  We then journeyed on to Giant's Causeway, which gave us amazing views of the Northern Irish coast, and then topped the night off with a meal at Sphinx, a small restaurant with the best kebabs I've ever had.  The next day, 13 of the 16 Columbia students ended up in Dublin and we spent a very expensive afternoon and evening together.

I'm definitely looking to make the most of my last two weeks here, there's so much that I haven't explored.  I haven't even started souvenir shopping yet, and we all plan on playing as much football as we can get in.  So far, my time in Glasgow has flown by, and I'm really excited to see what the last quarter of the program brings.

The last two weeks have really breezed by here.  Since the last blog entry, I've started to explore Scotland, going to Loch Lomond and Edinburgh over the last 2 weekends.  The work is also now in full swing after the immersion program and the initial feeling out of the first week.  Scotland, however, remains as fun as usual, and I'm sad that our halfway point here is approaching.

On the 27^th of June, fellow blogger Colin Sullivan, Whitney Green, Ed Kim and I set out to conquer Ben Lomond, a 3200 foot tall mountain in the Scottish Highlands.  We left early in the morning and used every mode of transportation (walk, subway, train, bus, and taxi) on the two-hour journey from Glasgow.  Armed only with cheap sandwiches from Gregg's (a favorite local cheap food chain), we hit the cloud layer very early in the climb and spent most of it in a dreary, bleak scene eerily reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's The Road.  On the way up, we reached a false summit on a crag of rock - climbing it was one of the scariest moments of my life; it was so windy that I thought I'd be blown off the mountain if I stood up.  The climb down was, thankfully, more straightforward and less eventful, and it turned out to be a great day.

On the 4^th of July, we decided to hold an All-American barbeque for the students in our cohort.  We went to Tesco (a Scottish Wal-Mart) and picked up about $150 worth of supplies.  In the afternoon, we lit some disposable grills and barbequed hamburgers, put some French fries in the oven, and baked an apple pie.  The night was topped off with some American football and a fireworks display spearheaded by George Mu.  It's safe to say that it was one of the better July Fourths I've had. 

While the weeks are whizzing by, our projects are rapidly advancing as well.  Our business plan is due next week, and we're busy doing costing of the food for our café, finding locations, and financially projecting the next few years.  It is almost overwhelming when you're trying to come up with every single cost that your business will incur in the next 12 months.  Moreover, making decisions on pricing and sourcing has shown me how obscure certain everyday items like tap water are and how difficult it is to cost them.  I know that after I finish this, I'll never look at a restaurant or café in the same way again!

As the program reaches its halfway point, we're still looking to go on some Scottish (and foreign) adventures and make the most of our time here.  We're excited for a trip to Belfast and Dublin over our long weekend (18^th-21^st of July).  The experiences that I've had while in Scotland so far have been amazing and I hope that the second half of the program is even better than the first!

June 26, 2009

When someone asked me what I was doing this summer, I told them that I was working in Scotland.  I had no idea what I was doing, who I'd be working for or with, or what my project would be about.  My "plan" was to land in Glasgow, find the person to shuttle me to our dorms, and keep an open mind from there.  After 1.5 weeks exploring the West End of the city (where we're staying), the City Center, and some suburbs, all I can say is that I love it!

The first week of the program was an immersion program and consisted of team building activities and training modules on how to be a good consultant.  The team building activities were really interesting; very different from American ones.  They included building a case to cushion an egg for a 15-foot fall, herding your blindfolded teammates into an enclosed space only using a whistle, and a piggyback race involving every student carrying someone or being carried.

The first week also led us to pick up a few other distinctly European cultural aspects.  We all have started to pick up a wee bit of a Scottish accent and have incorporated a few euphemisms into our speech ("cheers", for instance, as "thank you").  We've also had some great games of football (soccer) on the pitch near our dorms.  We've been joined by a bunch of University of Glasgow students, and, though the first time we played it seemed like they were babysitting us, now some of the games have gotten pretty competitive.  Kamal Yechoor (SEAS'11), who's never played soccer before, had an amazing header goal recently.

While it may seem like all play at times, we do have to work in Scotland.  My group is incredibly diverse, with 4 different ethnicities and birthplaces among the 6 of us.  Our projects are as varied as the people in the group; one of ours involves trying to outsource some production for a leading cabinet manufacturer, and another is improving the information systems of a hotel.  Apart from a few technical difficulties with the teams' homespaces (where we spend our days), leading as many as 5 of the 8 teams to crash the University of Glasgow library, the projects seem to have gone off without a hitch, and I know everybody here is looking forward to helping out their clients.

So far my experience in Scotland has been really positive.  While a few (I'm sure biased) Brits on the plane here told me to expect the Scottish to be mean, from the nice Scottish couple on the plane who introduced me to Glasgow from the air to the incredibly helpful woman who guided a hopelessly lost Chris Elizondo (SEAS'11) and me in the right direction on our first day of work, I've only encountered positives here.  All of the University of Glasgow and high school students here have made fast friends with us and shown us the places to go around the city.  Hopefully, the next 6 weeks will prove to be as memorable as the first 2 have been.