My American Internship: Yuhan C. of Singapore
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Our "My American Internship" series features CIEE BridgeUSA participants who submitted entries to our photo essay contest. Yuhan C. of Singapore worked as an intern at Artemis Analytics in New York, New York.
Three Singaporean interns, one rented Chevy, and a spur-of-the-moment drive north – what could possibly go wrong? Plenty, it turns out, but every wrong turn became the highlight of my American internship year.
By day, I crunch data for a New York fintech startup. By night (and long weekend), my teammates and I chase the quintessential U.S. experience. Over Memorial Day weekend, we pointed Google Maps toward Acadia National Park in Maine, confident the purple navigation line would get us there.
It didn’t.
Somewhere in rural Maine, we lost cell service, daylight, and – briefly – our sense of direction. After an hour of gravel detours and nervous laughter, a hand-painted sign reading “Cabins This Way →” felt like destiny.
Inside a cedar-scented cabin straight out of a Mark Twain novel, we turned a grocery-bag haul into a midnight feast, banging pots like improvised cymbals to celebrate finding shelter (and Wi-Fi). The next morning, we hiked Cadillac Mountain at dawn, stood speechless as the Atlantic lit up rose-gold, and finally understood why Mainers call this “Vacationland.”
That detour reshaped my internship. It taught me the American knack for rolling with uncertainty, relying on strangers’ kindness, and finding humor when plans unravel. Back in Manhattan, every ringing desk phone and Slack ping feels easier because I know I can navigate a forest – and friendship – with the same curiosity and grit.
The CIEE BridgeUSA Intern program promised cultural exchange; Maine delivered it in spades. I arrived seeking work experience and wound up packing a lifetime’s worth of campfire stories, along with two brothers I never expected to meet.