Hi! My name is Maya Franscella and I’m a Communications major here at the University of Montana. Over the summer of 2024 I completed an Internship at the Irish Georgian Society in Dublin Ireland. It was truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. I chose this internship because my global theme is culture and politics and I focus on intercultural communications with my major. An internship with an organization that focuses on conservation, education, and restoration of their countries culture was the perfect fit for me. When I first arrived in Ireland I did experience serious culture shock. The amount of doubt a person goes through when experiencing culture shock is really scary. There were moments when I didn’t know if I would ever adjust to the country I was in. But with time and experience I felt more and more comfortable with my environment and I gained confidence with help from my friends I met along the way and a stable work routine. During my time at work I learned a lot about my own work style as well as how to adapt to a professional work environment. I was given many projects as well as responsibility during my time at the IGS. I was their archival database analysis as well as their survey designer and I was incharge of the data report at the end of the survey. I had all of those responsibilities at the same time and I didn’t know if I would be able to do a good job doing all of that. But I surprised myself and my coworkers and was able to find a good flow and balance my projects pretty well. It’s given me a lot of confidence in my abilities and what I could offer going forward in a future career. Not to mention, I was able to learn so much about Ireland and the architecture thanks to my coworkers and work environment. It helped me learn and appreciate all I could of Ireland and what it had to offer. Overall I am so grateful for this experience and everyone who helped and supported me through the process.