About Our Authors
Emily Merson
Emily is the Executive Director of AIFS Abroad and former CEO of Global Experiences. Emily has lived in 5 countries, traveled to over 40, and holds 3 passports. Emily loves to paint, draw, cook, read, throw fabulous parties and create amazing travel adventures for her family. She has three kids and a super cute golden retriever called Bronte, named after her favorite beach in Sydney. Emily is a native of Sydney, Australia, and has a global resume with degrees from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, and Uppsala University in Sweden. Emily started her career in International Relations with an internship at UNESCO in Indonesia, and her first job at the Asia-Australia Institute in Sydney working with Asian Young Leaders. In 2001, Emily co-founded Global Experiences, an International Internship organization, serving as CEO from 2013 to 2020. During her time leading GE, Emily developed a range of innovative and award-winning programs focused on connecting academic and careers experience through international education.
Global Experiences focuses on helping college students and young professionals get a competitive edge through an international internship program experience. Every week we speak to hundreds of people starting out in their career and we think a lot about what advice to give and how to provide people with the best experience possible. Our goal isn’t just landing a job, it is helping our Alum have happy and successful lives, in the broadest sense.
Summer 2013 marks 10 years for our Florence Internship Program. I am often asked as one of GE’s two co-founders how we started Global Experiences, who’s idea was it, and why Internships. There is a long and a short answer of course but for me it is simple.
