Week 1!

Hey guys! This week has definitely been an interesting one, a bit difficult but also informative. I drank a lot of coffee (thank you Northside Social!), sent a lot of emails, and made a few mistakes, but ultimately learned a lot more than I thought I would.

Four days out of the week, I’m working in person at an office conducting various research tasks. I’ve collected and consolidated a bunch of sources related to the tax law that I’m analyzing, and I’ve even read over a few case studies where the law has applied. Ultimately, I’m going to be creating a ten-page report and executive summary that will reflect on the recent changes made to the tax law, and describe the process the company could take to maximize the deductions offered by the tax law.

In terms of my independent research, I’m still in that disorganized beginning stage where I’m finding, reading, and outlining alllll of my sources. Currently, I’m learning a lot about International Conflict Resolution theory (i.e. learning about the difference between coercive diplomacy, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and litigation; learning about the three types of mediation, and the situations that they’re most helpful in; learning about how the Cold War has changed the field; and so much more), but I’ve also made strides toward collecting case study data and identifying the conflicts that I want to study. By the end of next week, I hope to have finished outlining most of my sources and move toward selecting/cementing my case study choices.

The extent of the information that I’ll have to study is exhaustive, even more so because my internship doesn’t align with my independent research perfectly. It’s also been difficult to settle on the exact conflicts I want to study, because there are so many conflicts that all encompass so many interesting and important variables. To combat these challenges, I know I’ll have to take on more in-depth research and even deeper analysis. I hope the above paragraphs haven’t been too exhausting. Thanks for sticking with me through the end of my blog!!

~ Maria (xoxo)