Today, our blog features a Q&A with one of our current internship students, Hannah. We sat down with her to get the inside scoop on her current internship and her experience with the overall program. We asked her about her co-workers, the work environment, and her most valuable moments since arriving in Valencia. Let’s see what she had to say..

 

Hi Hannah, thank you so much for sitting down and chatting to us. I´d like to start with a brief introduction about you, where you´re from, why you chose to do a program with us and what was your motivation. Lets start!

Ok, my name is Hannah and I´m from Minnesota in the US. I wanted to do an internship in a Spanish speaking country because I started learning Spanish in kindergarden and I wanted to have  some of that real-world experience. I´m actually also a Biochemistry major and I´m planning to do a PHD program after I finish so it would of been difficult to fit this experience into my schedule at any other time.

 

Wow, how long do you think the PHD will take you? 

It´s actually anywhere between 6 to 7 years so yeah, I wanted to get the travelling out of the way with now and enjoy it all. This was great because I could do an internship involved with science and also be in a Spanish speaking country!

 

I completely understand, it sounds like the ideal situation for you! Let´s move on to the questions. If you could only describe your internship so far in a few sentences, what would you say?

It´s been a very supportive environment where I have got to a lot of independent work on a project that they company have given me. I have planned and executed an experiment and collected the data and I´ve also had the chance to assit with other laboratory protocal tasks. I have gotten to learn many different things and they have given me the freedom to do my own tasks and learn along the way. I am very happy so far.

 

What do you think you´ve enjoyed the most about your internship so far?

Well the people there are so fantastic. They are very helpful and they´ll work with me with my slightly slower Spanish (especially in a scientific context) and for that reason they are so accommodating and friendly. They also love to practice their English so we end up doing a mix between the two languages. Almost like a language exchange. It´s just a very positive environment at the company.

 

That is so lovely to hear, I am happy that they´ve supported you 100% in all aspects. I know you´ve just mentioned about the language, but would you say that you have faced any other challenges since starting your program?

I think it is just an adjustment and honestly I would say that the eating schedule has been the most difficult thing to balance becuase I get hungrier a lot more earlier than most people here. In the US we eat around noon and I also eat dinner at around 6:30pm. It hasn´t been that bad but I have been eating more snacks throughout the day.

 

So how did you face this challenge during your internship? Have you been eating at the same time as your co-workers or have you adjusted your schedule?

I can actually eat lunch whenever and they have been really accommodating regarding this. The only thing is that everyone usually eats lunch together so sometimes I am missing out conversations and I like to socialise with them. Even saying all of this, I usually can´t make it until 2pm without eating my sandwhich!

 

Well, If you´re hungry then you´re hungry, there isn´t much you can do about that! What new skills would you say you´ve learnt during your internship? Or you can also tell me about some other new things you have learnt…

This is a strange one but I actually learnt how to feed worms yesterday so you probably weren´t expecting that. I have also a lot  learnt about EU environmental policies and they were specific to my chosen field such as information about biodigradable plastics and the laws put in place for companies to have taxes put in place. There is actually also a certification process and the company I work for does the tests for the certification process so we they are able to help other companies get ready for this process and change some things.

 

You work in a labotorary, right? Would you say that you like the work environment and could you see yourself working in a lab in the future?

Oh absolutely. I want to work in a lab for the rest of my life and I actually knew this going into this internship, so it´s nothing I have really discovered or learnt about myself. I am very comfortable in a lab and I have previously worked in bio-medical labs and this is very like plant environment based and I´m stil enjoying it very much. It actually made me realise that my interests aren´t as narrow as I thought they were.

 

That´s really nice to hear and I´m glad you´ve discovered more about your interests because this will only help you further in your career. Sometimes, interns come and they don´t like the type of internship they are doing and then there are others that turn around and say » I want to do this for the rest of my life» so it really is about balancing out the pros and cons so you find what works for you.

 

Would you say that the program so far has met your expectations?

Yes, I would say that it has exceeded them. I have 5 free Spanish classes included in my program and I found them super helpful. I would probably say that they were the best Spanish classes I´ve ever had because they were very low stress and I never thought «Am I going to say the right thing? I always spoke and if it was wrong then we fixed it together. Previously I have always found talking in Spanish very stressful and I felt like I was going to mess up.

 

The teachers here really are so great and suppportive so I´m not surprised you enjoyed them so much! I have two more questions to ask. If you could give some advice to future interns interested in this program, what would you tell them?

Well, I would just tell them to go for it!

 

But how would you convince them? Because sometimes we have interns who are scared to go to a different country or aren´t sure that the experience is for them..

I would say that kind of no matter where you go, people are just people and they will usually be accommodating and help you if you need it. They are also there to learn and grow from you so they will be very understanding that you´re both coming from different cultures and you won´t be facing judgement. As long as you do your best to understand the differences and respect them then there is no issue and no one will be mad at you for that.

 

Great advice! What has been the most valuable thing you´ve learnt so far as an intern? Or what is something you´ll remember and not forget when you go back home?

I think that I really appreciate the food culture. I´ll explain a bit about what I mean. Every meal I eat in the US involves me being either on my phone or I´ll eat with one other person so we eat and then I´ll leave because I have class or something to do but in Valencia, a meal takes a long time but you also really enjoy the company of the people you´re with. I really appreciate that and I think that it is something I will take away with me and build into my life. I´d love to talk with the people around me and really enjoy their company.

 

What an original response! I love it! A great example would be paella because it takes a long time to prepare and then afterwards every eats from the same dish and really interacts with the people around them. Thank you so much Hannah, we really appreciate you chatting with us and we wish you all the best!

 

If you´re interested in doing an internship with EUROACE but you´d like more information about our programs and the sectors we work with, please check out our website here.