A Warm Welcome at Bruegel
About the author: Jenna Bowsher ’26 is a Global Studies/FSI The Europe Center Intern with the Bruegel in Brussels, Belgium. Jenna is studying Economics at Stanford University.
Upon my first day arriving at Bruegel, I was nervous. I was the only intern coming from Stanford, I didn’t know how to get into the building, and I was pretty sure I would be the youngest in the office. However, immediately upon arrival, all my concerns were calmed by how welcoming, friendly, and helpful all of my coworkers were. By the end of the day it seemed like everyone in the office had introduced themselves to me and offered a helping hand in some way or another. I joined as everyone took off to get lunch together, and was surprised to see that without fail, everyone took whatever they grabbed from one nearby cafe or another back to the office to eat together at two round tables. This culture of eating lunch together made it very easy for me to get to know my coworkers and feel at ease very quickly.
One of my favorite parts about working at Bruegel has been learning first hand about so many different policy issues and current affairs in Europe through both formal and informal discussions. At Bruegel, they encourage open discourse over weekly research meetings where different contributors present almost finished research for extensive live-feedback and questions, which has allowed me to learn about many research areas outside of my domain, from presentations on European capital markets and banking unions to expert discussion on both the recent French and British elections. These feedback loops also circulate email chains, in addition to commentary on current events like the possible US economic policy implications of Trump’s new running mate, J.D. Vance. These conversations spill into lunchtime conversations where I am more than encouraged to participate and eager to share my thoughts on the tumultuous state of the American election and how both Europe and the US are seeing struggles with populist leaders.
Some of my favorite discussions come from the many events hosted by Bruegel that I have been lucky to attend. In just my second day, I was shocked to meet Xiaochuan Zhou, the Former Governor of the People’s Bank of China, who spoke about Chinese and European cooperation on climate policy, and I listened to Magrethe Vestager, the Vice-President of the European Commission, lead an event on European economic security. After attending a roundtable event on using industrial policy to spur innovation in Europe, I was able to have a lengthy discussion with the director and a senior fellow at Bruegel at lunch about the diverging approaches the US and Europe take to innovation, and they were particularly keen to hear about my experiences growing up and attending university in Silicon Valley.
Through discussions like these, I have not only had an incredibly intellectually enriching summer, but I have also built great relationships with my coworkers, as I have been touched by how much time they invested into getting to know me and hearing my thoughts on issues in which I am nothing close to an expert. These relationships and this work environment have had a warmth that I am not used to in corporate settings in the US. I was delighted by the office-wide, monthly birthday celebrations with about six gourmet cakes whose quality cannot be replicated outside of French-Belgian bakeries, our company party that actually felt like a party to send off departing coworkers, and getting drinks in the park with the RA team on one of the first nice summery days in Brussels, making sarcastic toasts and cheers to progress made in the past few months, ‘to strengthening capital markets’ and ‘ensuring fiscal stability,’ symbolic of the light and joyful atmosphere to which the work culture takes what may seem like to outsiders, serious and dull topics. I couldn’t be more grateful for my very engaging time and incredibly welcoming atmosphere here at Bruegel.
