Liam Hughes '21
Major | Mechanical Engineering
Internship | New Delhi, India | Coworkin
I applied to this internship because I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and I wanted to have new experiences. Now after a full week of being in India, I can say exactly that and more. There is so much left to explore in this diverse country and with my internship at Coworkin, and there are two main topics which I hope to get a deeper understanding of from this internship: entrepreneurship and what goes into running a startup, and Indian cultures and customs.
As a mechanical engineering major from a non-diverse town in New Jersey, I have always been focused on how I can become a more well rounded and well versed individual on a cultural/emotional level, but I never really focused on rounding myself out in my studies. That is why after taking an entrepreneurship class and declaring a business minor, I wanted to take on an internship in the entrepreneurship field and really step out of my comfort zone. At Coworkin, something I want to be able to bring to the table is my perspective as an engineering student. I believe that one of the things that makes an entrepreneurial ecosystem thrive is a plethora of different minds with unique perspectives. I’m not as well versed as my fellow interns from the business school, but having a set of naive eyes can be an effective tool to look at certain problems. I have learned so much from spending time studying the ecosystem in San Francisco and I hope to be able to use that knowledge here in Delhi.
I also feel that there are so many lessons to learn from spending all this time in a culture so different from my own, in a country so different from the United States. I know I won’t be able to learn them all in these short eight weeks, but I will do my best to appreciate and understand as much as I can while I’m here. The things I’ve learned from the city around me are hard to put into words, but after taking rollercoaster rickshaw rides, bargaining at bazaars, and walking around in pants on the hottest recorded day in Delhi in over 50 years, I can say that I am looking forward to the rest of my time here and I am going to make the most of every opportunity.