By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications
 
Relating with people is one of Lidia Breen's greatest strengths, so it was fitting that this summer, the women's soccer goalkeeper completed an Iacocca Internship with the public relations company Natasha Slater in Milan, Italy.
 
"I am the type person who tries to relate with everyone," said Breen.
 
Breen wasn't always the confident individual she is today. She began as shy freshman, but today, is a leader of a Lehigh Athletics engagement group (T.I.D.E. – tackling inclusion, diversity and equality). This summer, she stepped outside her comfort zone to become a communications/public relations intern in a foreign place.
 
"My primary responsibility was with my boss Natasha, who wanted to launch a lifestyle website, a news source with writing about Milan, travel and luxury goods," said Breen. "This summer, I created a backlog of content for that website, writing articles about Milan focused on places to eat, fashion and more."
 
A journalism major, Breen wrote articles to ensure the re-launch of the company's website would have content from day one.
 
"I wrote about places to shop or new, up-and-coming brands based in Milan," she said. "Most of my writing was research based." 

 

Not all her writing featured simply research, however. There was one particular article she enjoyed writing the most.
 
"I interviewed a woman in person, who started her own handbag line which was made from recycled plastic from Guatemala," said Breen. "She's Guatemalan and lives in Milan. It's essentially artisan handbags made from recycled plastic. Italian is her first language, but we conducted the interview in English."
 
All internship long, Breen was fascinated by interacting with people that she otherwise never would have. Along with obvious skills she worked on (such as writing), she found herself learning just as much from indirect aspects of her summer experience (such as relating to people).
 
"I love seeing how different people live - going into a grocery store or pharmacy and seeing how different it is than America," said Breen. "I love seeing how people eat meals or how they walk around with their families.
 
"I am pretty fascinated by how other people live, their values and their culture."
 
Some of the direct skills Breen learned came from assisting the company with many PR responsibilities beyond her writing.
 
"Natasha is known for her awesome events, so during fashion week, I handled the RSVPs and worked the events at the door," said Breen. "She also has five fashion clients with clothes that need to go out to magazines for photo shoots, and that's all kept in the office. I helped package clothes going to Vogue or Vanity Fair for photo shoots."
 
Another aspect of the company is event planning.
 
"During men's fashion week, there were two brands that we threw their parties for," said Breen. "It was interesting to dip my feet into every little aspect of PR."
 
Breen also dipped her feet into living on her own. Breen and Lehigh volleyball senior Tori Hemsath (who was also interning at the company in a different role) were on their own.
 
"We were cooking every day, going to the grocery store and figuring out how to travel by ourselves," said Breen.
 
Everything wasn't always perfect, but Breen embraced the challenge of immersing herself in another culture.
 
"You walk into the grocery store and try to buy fruit, but don't put it in the bag or get the tag, so the Italians are yelling at you," she said. "But eventually, you figure it all out."
 
Breen has figured things out at Lehigh. Her Lehigh career started out a little rough; she didn't meet all her teammates until the first day of preseason, compared to the other freshmen who had met their teammates before entering the university.
 
"I came in and was shy, just because I felt like the odd one out," said Breen. "My teammates hadn't known that I was coming to be on the team until the previous May, then I just showed up at preseason. I was kicked in the face a week before preseason, so my eye was swollen shut. I had a black eye, a concussion, a sprained ankle and was super sick."
 
Not to worry. The environment within the women's soccer program is so welcoming that Breen quickly felt at home.
 
"Our team is not a place where you would feel shy for very long," she said. "Our team and coaching staff is very quick to recognize, and foster, everyone's strengths." 

 

The environment within the program, and Lehigh Athletics, is also to improve areas of weakness. To truly do that, it takes stepping outside of one's comfort zone, which Breen has done many times, including this summer.
 
When Breen and the Lehigh soccer programs went to France in March, 2017, it opened her eyes to traveling overseas for a more extended time. Understanding she would be putting herself in uncomfortable positions, Breen took a leap of faith and applied for an Iacocca Internship.
 
"When you apply for an Iacocca Internship, a lot is unknown," she said. "I applied for Milan because I know people typically do communications and journalism internships there, but you don't apply for a company at the time. When you get the internship, you basically just know that you're going to Milan. You don't know what you're doing, who you'll be working for or where you'll be living.
 
"I like to have a plan and know exactly how things will go, but I was basically dealing with the unknown for four months until I landed in Italy," Breen continued.
 
Not being able to "prepare" helped Breen become more adaptable.
 
"I had to be ready for whatever was thrown my way," she said. "Even if it's not something I had done before, my mindset was to see everything as a growing and learning opportunity."
 
Breen was also pushed out of her comfort zone in dealing with fashion. With plenty of sports writing experience, including with Lehigh's student newspaper The Brown and White, Breen had never written about fashion.
 
"You can ask my friends. I'm not a fashionable person," she said. "But it's not even about fashion at that point. It's about learning a new skill and learning a new organization. I was trying to learn every day and get better at being comfortable with the uncomfortable."
 
Learning every day is what the Lehigh student-athlete experience is all about.
 
"As a student-athlete in our program, it is critical that we help them learn, grow and ultimately lead others," said Lehigh head women's soccer coach Eric Lambinus. "By exploring new areas and putting herself in uncomfortable situations, Lidia has learned what she is capable of doing, becoming a more well-rounded individual and therefore has the ability to lead others around her, not only on our team, but also all around Lehigh."
 
Even though Breen doesn't want to be a traditional "reporter" after graduation, writing in general teaches a number of valuable skills.
 
"Journalism gives you a great background of people skills, learning how to write and learning how to interview interview," she said. "From this internship, I'm also going to take a newfound sense of independence and how to work on your own."
 
That independence is something not always seen within athletics.
 
"In athletics, you're used to someone telling you what to do and then you do it," she said. "The summer was a good step out of my comfort zone because someone told me a general idea of what to do, but I had to figure out all the steps to get to that end goal."
 
Breen looks to take the skills she learned back to all the types of teams she works with now, and will work with in the future.
 
"As someone who relates to so many people around me, this experience has only made her stronger," she said. "You come into Lehigh and you have to find a role on this new team with new people. Going abroad, I took that same approach.
 
"It was a little bit different because I didn't speak the same language, but people are people," Breen continued. "You find a way to relate to them, even if you don't speak the same language. Finding your role on a team, and how you can use that role to make the team operate as successfully as possible, is something I've learned from soccer and I used in this internship."
 
It doesn't matter the environment. Breen certainly knows how to relate with people.
 
"Lidia has always been a team-first individual, is extremely humble and wants to help people around her succeed," said Lambinus. "She is willing to put herself out there for others to know her on a deep personal level. Because of these traits, she is extremely relatable to everyone on our team."
 
"One of the women in the office this summer really liked dogs, as do I," said Breen. "That translates. It's a skill I try to bring to anything I do... relating to people and finding something we both care about.
 
"That transcends boundaries and transcends borders."