Internship abroad in Milan, Italy

By Kathryn D.

June 6, 2022



Ciao! My name is Kathryn and I’m a rising senior at Mizzou with a major in journalism, emphasizing in strategic communication. This summer, I am completing an internship in Milan, Italy, for the two month semester. Today is May 30, and I arrived on the 22, so I’ve been here just over a week.

I started my internship here in Milan last Thursday. Through IES Abroad, I was placed with a startup fashion company called HERE Fashion Hub. The brand Vado is their project right now, more specifically, and I am helping work on content creation for their website and social media.

Vado is a sustainable travel brand that sells travel wear and accessories, including different sized bags, clothing items, fitness equipment and other essential, day-to-day items for travelers. Along with sustainably-produced products, Vado places value in the mental and physical well being of their consumer market. They often focus their branding messages around the importance of mental health and creating time for oneself to decompress. Another goal they stress is the reduction of materialism. It is important to them that their customers do not feel pressured toward making impulsive purchases.

While I have not yet worked with this company for long, I am very eager and excited to be a part of something with such admirable values that creates products made for travelers. Because the company is small and made up of non-native English speakers, I am being given the opportunity to help curate brand messaging for both the Vado website and social medias. While English is present on all of Vado’s platforms, none of it was written with a native English voice. I will be able to help write and edit for the company to better extend the brand to its growing American market. I can’t wait to see what these next several weeks has to offer me as a worker in Milan, and I know the learning experience is going to be like no other!

After a week, I have started to adjust to the fast-pace lifestyle of living in “the New York of Italy.” Being the second most populated city in Italy, Milan is a booming metropolis full of business opportunities, high fashion, electric night life, diversity, wonderful food and much more. Upon arrival, I felt the nerves beginning to kick in. There was a lot going on in a very short amount of time my first few days. Once I started getting used to the seven hour time difference and four separate metro lines, I really started to feel more comfortable in this new city.

There is so much to see and do, and that’s just in Milan! As a country, Italy is such a uniquely diverse place, both geographically and culturally. I hope to spend most of my weekends here traveling to other Italian towns and cities. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to experience working on something I am passionate about in such a beautiful place. This is going to be best couple of months!

Arrevederci!

Learn more about this blogger’s study abroad program: Global Mizzou Internships