WLP alums are world travelers! Abigail Howard (IAC 2011-12) wrote to us to tell about her summer interning in Turkey...Take it away, Abigail!
I am a Junior in the School of Business majoring in International Business and Event Management. This summer, I was a Corporate Communications Intern at Doğan Burda Dergi in Istanbul, Turkey for 2 months. DB is a media and publishing company part of Doğan Holding, which is one of the largest corporations in Turkey operating in several industries including energy, media, tourism, and insurance, among others.
My internship was a great opportunity to learn about business and leadership in a different part of the world. I am fluent in Turkish, but I learned a lot of new vocabulary from being an intern and working in Turkey. As a result of the political and social altercations that went on this summer mainly in Istanbul, unfortunately all of the planned events got cancelled so there were definitely some lulls in the workload. However, I did help research and prepare several PowerPoint presentations, translate newsletters into English, and help implement new social media usage in the department. I also met a lot of people and got to see how both women and men are treated in the business world in a Muslim country.
I really enjoyed my time in Turkey and I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to have an internship abroad. I got to see how business is done in a different part of the world and definitely solidified my Turkish! Being in WLP, in the International Arts and Cultures Cohort, definitely helped me in my interactions with people who I met at my internship. There are a lot of women in leadership positions at all levels in the company, and it was great to talk to them to see how they got to the places they are today.