Taking Lehigh to the World and Bringing the World to Lehigh

Iacocca International Internship Program
Student Report

Summer 2020

OFFICE OF
INTERNATIONALAFFAIRS

Lehigh University’s Iacocca International Internship Program received the2019 Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education for student mobility
from the Institute for International Education (IIE).

2020 Student Report
Table of Contents
Burkhart, Ben - China

2-3

Chui, Eirlys - Zambia

4-5

Comick, Armani - United States

6-7

Constante, Nat - China

8-9

DeWeese, Brett - South Korea

10-11

Ghazizadeh, Omid - United States

12-13

Hackman, Madi - China

14-15

King, Isabella - United Kingdom

16-17

Min, Joseph - Zambia

18-19

Urbanski, Rylie - China

20-21

The Iacocca International Internship Program for Summer 2020 was
greatly impacted by COVID-19. All Summer 2020 Iacocca Interns were
given the option to defer to Summer 2021 or do a virtual internship. The
above eleven students, who chose to do a virtual internship, are featured
in this student report.

1

Ben Burkhart
China
PC Rossin College of Engineering& Applied Sciences

Nova Skantek
Virtual Biotech
InternChemical Engineering

Company and Position Description: Nova Skantek is a Chinese based leader in biotechnology
and instrumentation. Their work focuses on providing innovative equipment for biogas
reactors and research areas. Nova Skantek has a main office located in Beijing and multiple
other offices throughout China. The second largest is in the city of Changsha. For myinternship, I worked with individuals located in both offices. Most of my work focused on
their newest product. The product is designed to give companies and research labs an easy
was to test the efficiency of anaerobic digestion. I worked with individuals to create a productbrochure as well as an operation manual for the product. This required full understanding of
the product and how to best present the benefits of it.

The city of Changsha where mycoworkers were locatedAn old version of the product I was working with2

Ben Burkhart
China

My coworkers having a party
after a week of work

The beautiful Zhangjiajie region
taken by my boss

Value Derived from the Experience: This virtual internship provided lots of valuable experience.
I was able to meet multiple people and form relationships that I hope will last. Similarly, mycommunication skills were greatly improved due to a small language barrier as well as the factthat I was across the globe from the rest of my team. One of my favorite parts of thisexperience was just getting to talk to, and learn about, my coworkers. They were always
excited to tell me about their weekend plans, were they were going on vacation, and someof the highlights of the city they live and work in. They were also very adamant about asking me
to come visit so they could show me all that they talked about in person, and I hope that
one day I will be able to.

3

Eirlys Chui
ZambiaCollege of Arts &Sciences
English andEnvironmental
Studies

FirstWave Group
Sustainability &Impact InternCompany and Position Description: FirstWave Group is Africa's leading aquaculture firm. With
headquarters in Amsterdam and Johannesburg, they operate a vertically-integrated group ofcompanies across the production, distribution, and retail of fish and aquafeed in Zambia,
Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, and Europe. Zambia in particular has experienced severe
overfishing over the last decade and the country’s growing population and wealth add morepressure to the national fish gap. FirstWave produces tilapia fish in the open waters of Lake
Kariba and Lake Victoria, and their mission is to sustainably provide an abundant supply ofaffordable protein to the growing African markets.
During my time with FirstWave, I conducted research on various topics regarding sustainability,
aquaculture, and food security, particularly in the context of the African continent.
Additionally, I was part of a collaborative team that planned the making of the company’s
annual sustainability report. Along the way, I gained knowledge and insight into environmental
and social management, data collection and organization, and impact metrics and reporting. I
also acquired an understanding of the challenges that come with monitoring a company’senvironmental footprint and commitments to social responsibility as they dedicate themselves
to helping communities overcome obstacles such as hunger and poverty.

We utilized OneDrive for syncing andcollaborating on files.

Microsoft Teams was used for meetings
with supervisors.

4

Eirlys Chui
ZambiaLake Kariba is the world’s
largest man-made lake!

Aquaculture cages used fortilapia farming on the lake

Value Derived from the Experience: Despite being unsure about what to expect going into thisinternship, I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work with FirstWave Group. I greatly
appreciated the chance to meet people living in another part of the world and learn more about
the aquaculture industry and its significance to African economy and society. During thisinternship, I discovered that working remotely has its benefits as well as its disadvantages.
Communication through a screen can feel more distant without the use of body language andhinder the development of good rapport with colleagues. However, it also removed some of thepressure of in-person meetings and offered an opportunity to focus on practicing oral
communication skills. I truly enjoyed being able to work with a welcoming and supportive team
who took the time to introduce me to the company’s operations and make me feel proud of
their missions, values, and goals. I learned to adjust to time and cultural differences, accept thekind feedback and helpful advice of my supervisors, and adapt to working outside a typical job
setting. This internship enabled me to improve research skills, oral and written communication,
time management, and work ethic. Ultimately, this was a valuable experience that taught me toembrace opportunities in unexpected places and opened my eyes to the range of possibilities as
I continue navigating my career path.

5

Armani Comick
United States

College of Arts andSciences
International Relations

Iacocca Institute
Iacocca Institute InternCompany and Position Description: The Iacocca Institute, founded in 1988, emerged from theidea that provided the opportunity for Lehigh students to be exposed to the global world as apart of their Lehigh experience. Eventually, the Iacocca Institute expanded to feature manydifferent programs hosting students from all over the world including the two programs I
worked with directly, The Global Village, and The Iacocca Global Entrepreneurship Intensive.
Throughout the duration of my internship I was tasked with three separate projects. The firstproject was a creative design project, where we aimed to create a real life version of the
popular children’s platform “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” The goal was to model
an interactive version of the game where global villagers used clues from destinations andlandmarks all over the world to find Carmen Sandiego. The second project was a operational
project that challenged us with organizing databases with past alumni’s and sponsors’
information to maintain contact with the Global Village. The final project was to mentor highschool students throughout the virtual Iacocca Global Entrepreneurship Intensive. The students
were tasked with creating a product that would ease the consumer shopping experience during
the current pandemic. Overall, working with the Iacocca Institute pushed me to use and learn
different skills that will help me in the working environment moving forward.

Insert work photo
here (with small
caption below)

First Full Day -- Zoom
Fatigue Was Real

Iacocca Virtual Global Intensive - Social
Activity Session

6Armani Comick
United States

Music is a commonplace for
Americans of different
backgrounds that bring us
together.

Patriotism defines traditional
American culture from birth.

Value Derived from the Experience: Working with the Iacocca Institute helped me develop bothprofessional and personal areas of my character, each project catered to different areas of mydevelopment. The project featuring “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego,” allowed me todevelop and hone in on my skills in a professional way. For example, by creating mood boards
for each medium of production, we were able to analyze how different programs were
portrayed and advertised to the consumer. The opportunity to not only design a project but also
determine how it would be executed was extremely effective in developing project design skills.
I now have an understanding of the best ways to implement creative strategies in the future.
The operational project helped me understand the idea that my career will involve structuraland organizational work. Aside from that it developed my Microsoft Excel skills, and I was able
to contribute to a database that the Institute will continue to use long after my internship. The
last project, where we mentored high schoolers through an entrepreneurial experience reallydeveloped my leadership skills. This not only applied to American students, but rather, students
all over the world. Personally, from the COVID/virtual world experience, to the death of mymother, I was able to learn how to cope with both ambiguous and challenging circumstances
while in the professional environment. Learning how to work professionally in a virtualenvironment took great adjustments, but once I became fully acclimated into the team it wassmooth sailing. Additionally, the death of my mom was extremely unexpected, yet I was able tocontinue on with my position to the best of my abilities finishing my internship strong, thanks to
the help of my team at the Iacocca Institute.

7

Nat Constante
China

College of Arts & Sciences
Architecture & Civil Engineering

a_a&dArchitecture InternCompany and Position Description: a_a&d is an architecture firm based in Hong Kong,
Shanghai, and Paris. They primarily focus on design and engineering consulting in the field ofenvironmental design in architecture. They aim to optimize design and layout, which results inlower energy consumption. This summer I was able to develop a design for a tree house thatwould go in the eco resort they have been working on. It was a project I was able to be on fromstart to finish, which enabled me to see the entire design process.

Section of the tree house on site

Sketch of the tree house8

Nat Constante
China

Dragon Boat Festival

Lunar New Year

Value Derived from the Experience: Although this experience was very different from what
I originally thought my summer would look like, I was able to gain a lot of knowledge. I
learned what it is like to work in a professional architecture firm, work on my technical skills,
while also improving my communication skills and becoming more confident in my own
design ideas. My original internship placement was in India, for an engineering firm, andalthough I am sad that we had to shift gears, I am glad I was able to intern for an
architecture company. As a dual-degree student, I have spent a fair amount of my time during
my undergrad years trying to figure out what my next steps are going to be once I graduate.
Often torn between engineering and architecture, I felt as though I would never arrive to aclear answer. After this summer though, I am confident in wanting to pursue a graduate
education in architecture. This internship enabled me to trust in my own design instincts andwork on a project from the very beginning of the design stage up until the very end. It felt
very fulfilling to be able to take ideas from my head, then to paper, and seeing it as a digital 3D
model on the actual site.

9Brett DeWeese
South Korea
College of Arts & Sciences
Art & Architecture

Syntegrate
Research InternCompany and Position Description: The company that I worked for is called Syntegrate. It’s anarchitectural consulting company based in Seoul, but they have other offices in Hong Kong,Japan, and China. The firm does BIM models and facade design, and has worked for many
famous architects like Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid. Before starting this company, my boss
worked under Frank Gehry for a number of years. They’ve worked on projects like Louis
Vuitton stores, Museums, transportation terminals, and pavilions. These projects have mostly
been located in the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Europe. The company has also been working
on developing their own project management software that they hope to sell one day. This
software helps track projects by hours and budget, and will use AI to make predictions about
the design and construction process. My job was to do research on other project management
softwares and AI softwares and brainstorm ideas and solutions for our own software. I gave
presentations to the whole company of my research, and I created marketing brochures and a
LinkedIn page for the software.

Project Management Software

Screenshot of my Google Drive folder

10Brett DeWeese
South Korea

One of Syntegrate’s projects, Sunrise
Unification Observatory

One of Syntegrate’s projects,
the UAE Pavilion

Value Derived from the Experience: This experience was definitely not what I had planned
for when I applied for an Iacocca Internship. This challenged me mentally during theinternship. I also faced some challenges at the beginning withmiscommunication between Virtual Internships and my host company, my boss was told
I was a business student and thought I was going to be working more than double theamount of time I was supposed to be working weekly. This added more mental stress on
top of the circumstances with COVID. I learned to advocate for myself and speak up
when they had the information wrong. Although I still had to do business tasks as
oppose to architecture tasks, I worked on my attitude towards the whole experience andhow this internship will still be helpful to me. I was able to have an experience that is
unique compared to other architecture students, and I learned about a niche inarchitecture that I wouldn’t have been exposed to in the classroom. The best thing that
I got from this experience was changing my attitude during challenging times.

11

Omid Ghazizadeh
United States

Computer Science &Business (CSB)

Iacocca InstituteBusiness Intelligence
Analyst InternCompany and Position Description: The Iacocca Institute leads innovative international
programs that combine immersion in an extremely diverse living community with learning
experiences in entrepreneurship, leadership and more.
This summer I interned with the institute and learned and experienced many things. I created
and developed an innovative virtual program for the Institute by analyzing a 30-year old gameshow and researching the end user in order to come up with the proper design. Using myskills in computer science, I cleaned, organized, and updated an old database system on Excel
using functions and pivot tables and was able to recommended a CRM to the Iacocca
Institute by market researching and analyzing different CRM’s.

Friday Zoom meeting with the team

Organizing and cleaning the data

12

Omid Ghazizadeh
United States

Independence day, commemorating the
Declaration of Independence

Showing the U.S. as a melting pot

Value Derived from the Experience: I originally was supposed to go to Croatia and intern
as a business intelligence analyst intern there at a pharmaceutical company. Unfortunately
due to COVID-19 plans were changed and I decided to stay here in the country and internwith the Iacocca Institute. Even though I didn’t get the same cultural experiences that I planned
to get by living and interning in a different country, I still learned a lot and gained experience.
Most importantly I learned how to manage my time more efficiently. Working on a side
project of website development and design, taking a class, and interning at the institutechallenged me to manage my time better and more efficiently.
Another important experience I gained, was leaning how to perform proper market researchon products and services and professionally presenting ideas.

13

Madi Hackman
China

College of Business& Economics
Finance

ACN Worldwide
Financial Consulting
InternCompany and Position Description: ACN Worldwide is a global investment advisory group thatspecializes in strategic investments, corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions, traderelations, research and market intelligence, and business support services. They are based in
China, servicing private and institutional investors and facilitating transactions across the globe.
Their headquarters are in Shanghai with subsidiaries and rep offices in Asia, Europe and North
America. They provide investment prospects, market information and advisory services for bothindividual and corporate investors worldwide. I worked as a market research analyst, gathering
data about Chile, Argentina, and Peru to compile three separate fact books to be given toclients interested in investing in these countries. The fact books included information about
the country’s history, geography, climate, demographics, economy, education, culture andinfrastructure. Then, I accumulated legal, tax, and labor considerations along with the ease of
doing business within in each country to be used as investor considerations. Each bookamounted to about 40 pages.

Example page in fact bookCompleted fact book of Chile
ready for publication

14

Madi Hackman
China

Tai Chi is a popular pastimein Shanghai

Chinese Lantern Festival

Value Derived from the Experience: Going into this internship, I had no idea what toexpect. After my internship in Croatia was canceled, I was connected with this company thougha placement service. I think this internship opened my eyes to all the possibilities that a financejob could be. I originally thought that the main career track in finance is to go to Wall Street andwork in an investment bank. I now see that finance can be so many different things, much morethan just budgeting and calculations. I really enjoyed doing market research on different
countries and really learned so much about each country. I am so excited and open to thepossibilities of a less conventional finance job. This internship made me realize that an amazing,enhancing experience can bloom where you least expect it, and that any experience can beworth it if you really put the work in and have an open mind. I also learned that I am very
passionate about traveling and having a job that handles global responsibilities. I learned that in
the finance world, is extremely important to create relationships with your clients and let themknow that you really care. A really interesting aspect of my job was seeing what otherinvestments our clients were interested in. Many clients wanted to invest in human rights
initiatives, green living solutions, and economic and political stability platforms. This made me
realize that money can make a huge impact on people and it is of paramount importance to giveback and use financial prosperity to make the world a better place.

15

Isabella King
United Kingdom

College of Business& Economics
Accounting & BIS

Kids Know Best
Research/Marketing

Company and Position Description: A newer marketing company that was founded in the UK,
entirely based on the idea that marketing for kids must come from kids. They focus on
research with kids (they even created their own app to allow kids to make choices and earnpoints to redeem them to donate money to UK Charities). They work a lot with influencers onsocial media sites and connect them with potential customers (like Hasbro) to do different
promotions of board games or merchandise etc.

Insert work photo
here (with small
caption below)

16Isabella King
United Kingdom

This is a statistic of the social
media that is popular in the UK.

Photo of Big Ben where I would
have loved to visit and hope to
see one day.

Value Derived from the Experience: This experience really helped me grow in both theprofessional and the personal sense. Professionally I learned a lot about on hands researchoutside the classroom and how B2B business actually works. When it come to learning about
and focusing on influencers in different countries it was very interesting to experience theirculture and learn the nuances between individual influencers and those who worked for a larger
firm. I also got to learn a lot of hands on experience on the marketing strategy and process when
new products come to market with a nice twist in the case of these always being for younger
children. And, although professionally I did not experience anything very similar to my major I
learned a lot about my style of communication especially virtually and what I need to do to keep
myself motivated while at home or when working with someone in a different time zone so I
could not always ask questions. This helped me to grow more confident in my ability to work
independently and problem solve which I think will help in my future career.

17

Joseph Min
ZambiaRCEAS & College of Business
IBE Finance,
Industrial &Systems
EngineeringFirstWave Group
Supply Chain& Logistics InternCompany and Position Description: Over the summer, I had the opportunity to intern at
FirstWave Group, a vertically-integrated firm that operates a group of companies across the
production, distribution, retail, and aquafeed of fish in Southern and Eastern Africa. FirstWave
is Africa’s leading aquaculture firm that operates across Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa
and Europe. Their purpose is to sustainably provide an abundant supply of affordable protein
to the growing African markets. As a Supply Chain & Logistics Intern, I was part of a team called
Optimal Delivery Project Group that looked towards restructuring the route plan for thecompany’s daily truck deliveries to retail outlets as well as modern trade stores across Zambia.
With an increase in shelf life of the fish products, the team decided to cut down on the numberof deliveries through the implementation of the NOD and NDD schedule while conducting
investigative analysis of the consumer demand for each store. Maximizing efficiency for eachroute as well as cutting down delivery costs were the key driving factors for this special project.

Analyzing possible routes within Lusaka, Zambia

Screenshot of Daily Meeting via Microsoft Teams

18

Joseph Min
ZambiaTilapia Fish is one of the mostconsumed products in Zambia

A Distribution Center is located in
Lusaka, the capital of Zambia

Value Derived from the Experience: Going into this virtual internship experience, I did not knowwhat to expect. After coronavirus cancelled my internship in Croatia, I got connected with acompany that is so culturally and economically different from what my original internship wasgoing to be like. Working for a company located in a third world country, I realized that there area lot of possible constraints regarding business operations. Had I continued to intern for a more
economically developed country such as Croatia, I would never have considered possible factors
affecting businesses such as companies facing load shedding and the large presence of informal
markets in less developed countries. These business constraints made the projects that I worked
on a lot more interesting because it required the team to think outside the box to overcome
issues. Although I did not get to meet in my team members in person, they were very supportiveof me throughout the learning process and through our daily Microsoft Team meetings, I learned
to communicate my ideas more effectively with my group over the course of the internship. Even
though this was not the way that I had imagined my international internship experience looking
like, overall, I believe I still grew both on a personal and professional level and I am glad I had theopportunity to work for a company in the midst of the pandemic.

19

Rylie Urbanski
Beijing, China

PC Rossin College ofEngineering &Applied Sciences
Bioengineeringand Finance

OASIS International
HospitalCommunications
InternCompany and Position Description: OASIS International Hospital is an international high-end
general hospital that provides world-class evidence-based practice through the international
JCI medical standards certification. OASIS is Beijing’s largest comprehensive service hospitalproviding quality, patient-centered care across a full range of medical and surgical
specialties.
With OASIS, I worked with Joshua Hiller as a remote communications intern. In that position,
I created social media and video content to inform and educate the public in an entertaining
way. I also worked on market analysis through company PowerPoints and research.

My articles were published on WeChat, a social
media platform commonly used in China.

This is a video I made about women’s
health with my mom.

20

Rylie Urbanski
Beijing, China

Shopping in a local Oriental market

Making traditional ChinesezongziValue Derived from the Experience: This internship provided me with a lot of opportunities
to learn and grow. I was able to adapt to working and communicating remotely with a foreigncountry. I was also able to develop my strategic thinking capabilities. I had to do research anditerate a company PowerPoint through mind mapping and brainstorming that encouraged me
to go back to basics, develop a cohesive plan and train of thought, and then be able to convey
that in a PowerPoint to others. Most of my internship laid in creating and editing videos. I
learned the valuable skills of starting from scratch and creating an educational and impactfulvideo outline, how to record quality footage in a proper environment, and edit the video tomake it interesting and easy to follow-along with. I can now also say that I’ve made traditional
Chinese zongzi and gained that cultural insight in preparing a foreign dish and shopping in
cultural markets near me that I usually don’t visit.
Working remotely provided unique experiences and challenges that, along with working withpeople I’ve never met in person and across a 12-hour time difference, I didn’t expect thequality of this internship to be as beneficial as it was. I also now know how to communicate
challenges and positives along to my supervisor, how to ask for feedback, and how to build
work relationships. These are invaluable skills that I will use in my future career.

21

Thank you to the donors who make this program possible!

Air Products Foundation

Trisha S. '11G and James
J. Alexy '16P

Evita and Jefferson F.
Allen '67 '97P

Anonymous

Susan K. Archer '82

Kevin E. Augustyn '17

Jessica M. Baier '16

BD (Becton Dickinson)

Elizabeth and Joseph J.
Bailey '80 '14PPeter S. Bailey '92

Barbara and David M.*
Baldwin '51

Christina E. Bauer '15

Jessica M. DeSantis-Berg'03 and Jonathan J. Berg
'03

Beverly and Harold P.
Bitler '64

Lauren E. Bloch '10

Kim and Robert W.
Bohny '84

Gloria H. and Michael G.
Bolton '65 '67G '94P

Elizabeth T. Brinkman '88

Yutong Chang '17G

Jane L. Johnston andTimothy G. Chelius '16P

Maria L. '87 and John R.
Chrin '85 '86 '10P

Kieren E. Connor '16

Joan and Curts Cooke '58'82P '15GP

Doreen M. and Bryan A.
Costantino '14P '16P

Gretchen F. Cusick

Lynne M. '87 and Sean
Davis '23P

Amanda L. and John R.
Day '98

Claudia De Dougherty
and Eugene T. Dougherty'87 '12P '14P

Marianna R. Deal '17P

Terri R. and Charles J.
Delaney '81

William A. Draper Jr. '65

Patricia and Stewart Early'66 '96P

Jennifer Satz Enslin '18P
and Jeffrey D. Enslin '88'18P

Yiyi N. and John C. Evans'66

Nadine S. Elsayed '18

Charlene Y. Fergus '99

Nikola and Todd M.
Freeman '82 '15P

Wayne D. Freese '59

GE Foundation

Linda L. and Peter M.
GilbertBette G. and Stephen F.
Goldmann '66

Christine and Steven H.
Goldthwaite '87

Oscar J. Gomez '18

Judy and Donald M.
Gruhn '49

Alexis L. Haggert '18

Melanie H. Hanft '20

Julia W. '87 '21P and
Raymond G. Held '85'21P

Kaitlyn M. Hennessy '19

June W.* and Leon C.
Holt '48 '85P through theHolt Family Foundation

Katherine J. Howlin '16

Linda P. Huber '80

Lee A. Iacocca* '45 '17GP'69H

The Iacocca Foundation

Ingersoll-Rand Company

Intel Foundation

Elaine B. Ivy '14

Brodi D. Jackson
Borchardt '98 and
Gregory C. Borchardt

Christopher W. Kohler'08Mariah X. Kozub '19

Kelsey LaBosco '16

Matthew M. Lambert '18

Allison L. Land '88 '19P

Farren Leung '18

Harry B. Levine '56 '91P

Hilary J. Lewis '11

I. Henry Lewis '63

Alice E. and Howard T.
Lieberman

Emily M. Linderman

Victor Lopez-Balboa

Sharon O. and James R.
Maida '85 '17P '19P

Rachael M. Martel '16

Haley G. Maruschak '15

Victoria R. McCulley '19

Medidata Foundation

Merrill Lynch & Co.
Foundation, Inc.

Metem Corporation

Hannah and James D.
Miller '64 '67G '87P '90PDavid A. Morrison '18

Amy L. Moyer '12

Ann C. '91G and Vincent
G. Munley '74 '02P '04P
'05P

Barbara and Ronald
Muse '06P

Sarah J. Muse '06

Minh B. Nguyen '18

Rene Obregon '97P

Noah O. Ongoro '14

Tanairy Ortiz '19

Kristin C. Perry '93

Donald R. Phillips '84

Bernardo J. Pontes '03

Bonnie L. and Frank T.
Pratt '65 '66G '03P

PwC

Seneca S. Rasey '17

RBS Greenwich CapitalFoundation

Kathryn Y. and Alan G.
Rieper '62

Ilyana Sangadzhyieva

Casey L. Snyder '18

Robin and Lawrence M.
Statsky '14P

Megan K. and Charles E.
Stevens

Alex P. Tamm '12

Patricia M. and Lawrence
J. Tamm '12P

Ronni and Arthur C.
Tauck, Jr. '53 '79P

The Freeman Foundation

Cheryl A. and Paul D.
Thomas '78

Christine and Vincent R.
Volpe, Jr. '80 '81

Evan R. Vomund '18

Laurence J. Walsh '92

Ryan L. White '14

Arielle K. Willett '15

Huan Xie '17

Angela K. Young '17

Deborah E. Zajac '97(PricewaterhouseCoopers)

For Additional Information: http://global.lehigh.edu/internships
Carol Strange, Program Director: csh205@lehigh.edu(610) 758-3467

OFFICE OF
INTERNATIONALAFFAIRS