This fall I ended a truly amazing internship at Swedish Chambers International, having first spent six months working for the Swedish Chamber in Hamburg and then heading straight to Beijing to work at SwedCham China while also supporting SCI. It has honestly been the best year of my life and I am incredibly thankful to the Scholarship Fund for Swedish Youth Abroad for making this possible. I thought I would try to make a quick recap of this amazing year.
I wrote earlier about my time in Hamburg, but in short it was my start in the chamber world, a crash course in German, and a chance to see how much work goes into the big moments like Svenska Företagspriset in Berlin. A great first chapter.
Then came Beijing, which was a completely different adventure. Food, language, climate, culture, everything was new and it was a pleasure to take it all in. The work environment was just as intense in the best way. SwedCham China runs more events than any other chamber, so every week was full and every day had something new. It was also incredible to be there right when Sweden and China relations started to open up again, with several state visits and, eventually, China becoming visa free for Swedish citizens, something our members had been hoping for for years.
During the year I also had the chance to join two events in Stockholm, the SCI Days, which were a highlight for me. Meeting all chamber colleagues in person and talking about how we can develop the collaboration gave a real sense of how global this network actually is.
The internship ended perfectly with the launch of the Scholarship Fund alumni network, where I had the chance to moderate a talk with Annika Rembe and Gabriella Augustsson about life and work abroad. A great way to close the circle.
I am truly thankful to the Scholarship Fund for Swedish Youth Abroad for giving me the chance to have this year. It has meant more than I can say.
