Monday, July 27, 2009

Let's start at the very beginning...

As I pack, it seems like I'm packing for a very long speech tournament. Inside my suitcase I pack heels, nylons, a makeup bag and gingerly place two skirt suits. Skirt suits just happen to be my favorite outfit. When I don a skirt suit it is similar to Superman donning his cape-I feel like a hot-shot CEO of a Fortune 500 Company, out to take on the world. And in a way, I will be taking on the world again-the working world, that is. If I haven't been within proximity to talk your ear off about this opportunity, let me fill you in about who I am and what brings me "across the big pond".

I just finished my junior year at the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and study German for Business as my major and International Business as my minor. I'm also a member of the UWEC Forensics team (don't worry-it's not anything like CSI. The forensics we do is more like public speaking competitions) and ballroom dance in my spare time. German is really a great passion of mine (but occasionally can be a love/hate relationship) and I've been studying the language ever since I was in seventh grade. My sophomore year I studied abroad for a year in Graz, Austria and to be honest, I didn't think I would find myself in Europe again. Thankfully, this assumption was wrong!

Through the recommendation of my German for Business professor, I applied to the Transatlantic Program, which supplies American students with knowledge of German and an applicable major with an internship in Germany. After submitting my application, I was contacted about a phone interview in German and English. Apparently my German is pretty good and I was one of 20 students nationwide to be selected!

So I had an internship. The only questions that remained were-where would I be working and with what company? I was incredibly fortunate to get a position in the marketing department of Saint-Gobain Sekurit in Aachen, Germany. Saint-Gobain is a French corporation (founded in 1665 in France, it is the oldest surviving corporation) that started out making mirrors, but today is a huge corporation. They produce everything from windshields for cars to building materials to glass bottles for wine and groceries. An interesting factoid: the sky walk at the Grand Canyon, which allows you to take a look into "the belly of the canyon" so to speak, without having to fall to a sure and rocky death, was produced by Saint-Gobain Sekurit.

My internship lasts from June 4th until August 15th, but before the work begins, I will be staying in Berlin for a pre-internship seminar, filled with daily language lessons, briefings on the German business and political climates, as well as day trips to Hamburg and Dresden. Also, if you want to see the official website, go to www.transatlanticprogram.org.

As I finish packing, I realize I will not be headed for a long speech tournament and pack up my travel bible, the "Europe on a Shoestring, Vol. 4" from LonelyPlanet, and my internship bible, "Living and Working in Germany," amoung other things. I'm really excited for this internship-we'll see how it goes and I know this will for sure be an adventure of a lifetime!

Cheers!
Whitney