Jiwon, an Intern among European Commissioners and Ministers

After talks at the Think Young (a Brussels think-tank) stand at Bocconi & Jobs, the University's recruiting event, and a meeting with CEO Andrea Gerosa (a Bocconi alumnus) on a trip to Belgium, Jiwon Lee knew she would not spend her internship making photocopies. But she could not have imagined that, after less than four months, she would have represented her organization at the European Business Summit (EBS,, May 22nd and 23rd).

EBS is an international meeting in Brussels with 2,000 participants and 150 speakers, including European Commissioners Pierre Moscovici, Cecilia Malmstroem and Guenther Oettinger, German Federal Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble and Spanish Minister of the Economy Luis De Guindos Jurado. "When Mr. Gerosa asked me to replace him", says Jiwon, "such company intimidated me, but then he managed to convince me, explaining that it would have been a great opportunity and that he thought I would not have any problems".

In a session titled "Retaining and attracting young talent in Europe" Jiwon, an undergraduate student at Bocconi's Bachelor in International Politics and Government, talked about the youth perspective on the job market and unemployment, based on a research conducted by Think Young and Tata Consulting. "The audience," she says, "was composed mainly of young professionals, aged between 20 and 40."

A Venetian of Korean origin, Jiwon strongly wanted an experience in the workplace, anticipating it at the second year (the curriculum stage is in the third year) and apart from the unexpected speech at EBS, she found herself working on an important project , with a precise deadline: the Makers Town event, to be held in Brussels on June 20th. "We will present the work of 50 European makers," says Jiwon, "on the basis of another research that denounced the shortage of STEM education in Europe".