Jouice Meek

“One of the advantages of the International College of Management, Sydney (ICMS) is that they have the best industry partners in the country, so they can organise an internship in Australia even in the middle of a global crisis.”

For international student Jouice Meek, from the Philippines, this meant receiving an offer from the coolest luxury champagne conglomerate to complete her internship at Moët Hennessy in the finance department of their Sydney office. “The industry placement at Moët Hennessy was introduced by my WIL (Work Integrated Learning) facilitator at ICMS,” she explains. Moët Hennessy Australia is part of a French multinational corporation and conglomerate specialising in luxury goods, headquartered in Paris, France.

Jouice is thrilled to be doing her industry placement at Moët Hennessy, and in particular, enjoys the fact that it’s a multinational business where she can meet different people from a variety of countries. She’s impressed with the way that the company supports diversity and creativity and their focus on environment sustainability. “The warm welcome I received from everyone in the office and most especially the dedication of the exceptionally talented Finance Team means I am assured assure that my time (at Moët Hennessy Australia) will be fruitful and knowledgeable.”

“I hope to learn how the business is operating with different Maisons and how they manage compliance. The approach of “we are all finance people” is great – knowing that every single person in the company is contributing and to understand better the meaning of finance and how it helps to drive the business.” Jouice started her Master in International Business at ICMS in 2019. She chose ICMS, she says, “because it offers an academic degree together with the industry placement to complete, which I reckon to be very helpful to put in practice of all the learnings from class.”

After completing her Bachelor in Banking and Finance in Polytechnic University of the Philippines (State University) and had an almost 5 years’ professional work experience in a bank.

“I chose to study International Business to broaden my knowledge of international markets and become more aware of international trends.”

Jouice is of course concerned that the global pandemic has been disruptive and that she worries that it will ‘minimise opportunity globally’. She feels it will become harder to pursue ones’ dreams in a pandemic, where almost everyone is disrupted and encounters challenges but she is prepared to rise to the challenge. “Being in this company (Moët Hennessy Australia) in this time really feels like I’m following the spirit of Moet’s inspiration ‘Crafting Experiences’. In this challenging time, you find out how far you can go, you push beyond your limits, you’re be agile in your plans and look even for the smallest opportunity and to it to the best experience you could have. It is true that you will never know what’s ahead for you.”

“My hope is to use my knowledge in the industry of a multinational company that supports the development of their people and creates a value in culture of inclusion just like they do at Moet Hennessy.”