Work hard, play hard!

Six-weeks ago, I wouldn’t have been able to even tell you what a consultant does, now merely forty-two days later I am one. When I first heard about iX, from my sister, I thought it sounded too good to be true. How could I possibly be able to be placed into a consulting internship after only 2 weeks of class, when previously I knew nothing? There’s no way I would be prepared enough, right? Wrong! The iX experience is hands on and intense in the best way possible. On the first day of class I learned what a consultant does, what the consulting industry is like, learned how to define a client issue, and got assigned to a project team. Day one, I was already beginning to do the work of a consultant. A week later my team, composed of students from across the globe, and I had created a proposal and presented it to the class. That’s CRAZY! Now four weeks later, at the end of my six-week program, I’m working on my final presentation to present to my client. During my internship, my team and I were tasked with quantitatively measuring the sustainable impact of an eco-hostel in Lisbon. We researched best practices, created KPIs, and discovered the requirements necessary for the hostel to become Green Key certified. We were able to create sustainability trackers that the hostel will implement and use to increase their sustainability in the future as well as tangibly show their progress to investors. Now, that I’m at the end, I’m sad to go. I’m going to miss all the amazing people in the program and the beautiful city of Lisbon. My favorite excursion was a trip to Carcavelos for surfing lessons! Besides a few over achievers (lol), no one knew how to surf before the excursion. We showed up, put on our ridiculous looking wetsuits, and carried our boards down to the beach. We spent 10 minutes running around and stretching, in our wet suits I might add, which made us look ridiculous hahah, in order to get our blood pumping. Then they gave us a lesson on the beach where we all attempted to “pop up” into our surfing stances before being released to try it on the water. As I’m sure you can probably imagine, we fell A LOT. But, by the end of the excursion everyone had stood up and surfed for at least 2 seconds, so I’d call it a success. I’ve learned so much, gotten to know so many different people, and would do it all over again in a heartbeat!