2016 AmCham Internship Reflections: Part 3

AmCham Summer Interns Reflect on their Experience

Each summer, AmCham Taipei’s Publications and Communications Department offers internships to several outstanding students at foreign universities to serve on the Taiwan Business TOPICS or help with the Chamber’s website and posts on social media. We asked members of the 2016 contingent to share their thoughts about the experience. 

Florian Paschka, Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)

One and a half years ago, I had to make a decision where to go on my exchange year abroad. One region which was always very interesting to me happened to be East Asia. I decided to go to Taiwan and to study at National Taiwan University. I had a great time getting to know a new culture.

Taiwan offers countless opportunities to travel within the country and abroad due to its central location. Two of the nicest places I have been to in Taiwan were Sun Moon Lake and Taroko National Park. The areas not only offer astounding hikes and excellent destinations best reached by scooter, but also a lot of cultural aspects with aboriginal tribes living there. During my time in Taiwan, I also sought to experience other countries and traveled to Japan, Singapore, China, Thailand and the Philippines. Every place had their own advantages. For example, I enjoyed Tokyo’s busy nightlife and the Philippines’ remote islands and beautiful beaches.

After studying and traveling, I wanted to experience what working in an Asian country feels like. AmCham offered me the opportunity to work in its communications department. I enjoyed the friendly and open company culture and got along well with the other interns also working there at the same time. My main responsibility included analyzing the performance of the website and the social media channels, as well as posting articles on the website and creating marketing emails. My supervisor was very flexible and gave me tasks in the areas I enjoyed most. Moreover, I always got support if I had any questions. The internship was a great end to an amazing year abroad.