Great Expectations
Interning in Asia teaches more than career skills
By Kaitlin Solimine
Spring 2005
On her first day in Shanghai, Tiffany Stone was shown an empty site in
a mall and told that by the end of two months she was expected to make
the space a fully operating restaurant with a Formula One auto-racing
theme.
“I was excited for the challenge,” says Stone, a junior political science major from Houston, Texas.
Stone, interning in Shanghai as a USC Freeman Fellow, was one of 18 USC
undergraduates sent by the USC Freeman Fellows Internship Program to
live and work in Asia for the summer. The program, which annually sends
up to two-dozen USC undergraduates to Asia, hopes to teach participants
cross-cultural skills while also allowing them the chance to test out
career options. It is not uncommon for more than half of the fellows to
be College majors.
“The students we send on the program are globally minded world
citizens,” says Janette Brown, associate director in USC’s career
planning and placement center.
True to form, the students often take on a diplomatic role in their
assigned offices. While at work on her restaurant project, Stone was
taught about cultural miscommunications first hand. “I learned that in
business in a foreign country, always explain things twice,” she
recalls. “When talking to a baker about the specifications for a
hamburger bun, I mentioned that the patties would be one-third of a
pound. You can imagine my surprise when I came into the office the next
day only to find one-third pound buns at my desk!”
Junior Freeman Fellow Amanda Weiss, an East Asian languages and
cultures major from Glenview, Illinois, had similar experiences in
Taiwan. “Losing your ability to make yourself understood is
frightening,” she says. “One woman couldn’t understand a thing I said
in Mandarin, making me very self-conscious. I eventually overcame this
fear, but it was a battle.”
Because of the success of the Freeman program, in 2004 USC started the
Mexico Summer Internship Program, which is funded in part by the USC
Center for International Business Education and Research. This past
summer the program sent 11 students to intern in various industries in
Mexico City; eight were College majors.
“The Mexico program reinforced my interest in the environment and Latin
America,” says senior international relations and Spanish major Carolyn
Davidson, who interned at the Mexican Ministry of the Environment. “I
now hope to involve both in my post-graduation plans.”
Through both programs, the students not only learn about a given industry, but also to test their personal boundaries.
By the end of the summer, Stone’s fully serviceable Formula One
restaurant was one such accomplishment. “I oversaw the creation
of everything from the uniform for the wait-staff, to the décor, to the
menu,” she says. “And in the process, I also realized my own
powers of adaptability and strength.”
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