Voices From Abroad: Remo Abbondandolo

View of the Great Wall of China

Champaign-Urbana (USA), Exchange Program, University of Illinois
Shanghai (China), Campus Abroad, Fudan University
Mumbai (India), International Internship, Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce

Studying at Università Bocconi gives students a lot of advantages. One of them, and, in my opinion, the most important one, is to take part to some kind of international experience as I did in my last academic year.

During my undergraduate degree, I took part in the Campus Abroad program in Shanghai; it was my first experience outside Europe, the first time in a different environment, different life, and another culture. During the Campus, you not only have the possibility to visit some Chinese and multinational companies (for example we went to Ferrari and we had a guest speaker from Bosh), but also the opportunity to discover Shanghai and to visit some other cities in China.

Moreover, during the Bachelor program, I went to Illinois, in the United States, where I spent one of the best periods of my life. The exchange was completely different from the Campus Abroad. It was a challenge for me at first. In exchange you are almost alone (I was only with two other Bocconi students, instead of 40 students in Shanghai); however, you are going to meet people from everywhere. The University of Illinois is one of the top ten public schools in the States, so there are people from more than 160 countries! I met people from Alaska to Down Under, with different cultures, Catholic or Muslim, black or white.

Millenium Park, Chicago

In the States, you will have a real student life. A big campus, with all facilities, services, and whatever you need. Also the system worked different from Europe: few students for each class, a lot of assignments, team projects, class participation, midterms, etc. Your academic career will benefit from that.

However, during the exchange I visited many places: thanks to the low cost companies and the low currency I traveled a lot. I went to Chicago, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, Columbus Ohio, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Buffalo and, of course, the East Coast: Boston, New York and Washington...and in December, before coming back in Italy, traveled from Illinois (it was -15 degrees there) to Florida (+26 degrees!), Orlando and...last but not least... MIAMI!

Another wonderful experience that I did is CIBER 2007, an International Case Competition hosted by the Ohio State University. In this occasion, I had the opportunity to resolve a business case in 24 hours against teams from other universities.

We did not win the competition, however I gained a lot from this experience, such as how to work well with others in a stressful short period of time, as well as improving my public speaking and presenting skills and how to face problems which I had never seen before.

An elephant ride in India

Finally, my recent experience was in India, but this time to work. When I finished my undergraduate exams, I did an internship at the Indo-Italian Chamber of Commerce. Of course it was a different experience from the previous ones, since I applied in a work environment what I learned at the university. Doing an internship in an international institution like the chamber of commerce, enhances your knowledge and gives you and an idea about international institutions, if you aspire to work not only for business companies. Apart from the internship, also I did some traveling around India during the week-end as well, so I discovered some unique places in the world.

However, you have to be very flexible to go to this country, understand and accept the different culture, lifestyle and all types of foods. Do not make the mistake to think that even if you have traveled a lot to different countries, you won't find any difficulty staying in India. Before leaving, be sure to hurry while home: be prepared to stay ages in traffic jams waiting for a cow which is not sure where to turn after the traffic light (and do not pretend to teach it the difference between red and green!) or waiting for a taxi, which could probably mean riding an elephant. Even though there were some difficulties, I was very satisfied with my Indian experience, and I'm now even more aware of this country's challenges and possibilities.

My suggestion is of course to apply for an in international experience, but make sure that you are very flexible; otherwise it won't be easy to survive in different countries and cultures!