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How an international UNC student landed an AI summer internship after changing her major

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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Vivienne Hnin, a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who will be interning at AI-native startup Utilyst this summer. Her employment and identity have been verified by Business Insider. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I came to Chapel Hill in 2023 as an international student enrolled in pre-med.

My country, Burma, was on the travel ban list last year, so I couldn’t go home and had to find a summer job. As a biology major, I didn’t have a lot of options for summer internships. That made me reevaluate my major because I felt medical school might be difficult as an international student with all the policy changes.

So, I started exploring other options. Part of the reason I decided to pivot into computer science is because of AI. In the past, people who went into computer science had been coding since they were very young. They knew the fundamentals coming in.

I didn’t have robotics or computer science classes growing up. With AI, you can learn at a much faster pace. UNC was also really accommodating and helped me switch majors and explore my interests without locking me into a major that I chose freshman year.

It was hard to adapt and get an internship this cycle because I started late, so I tried a bunch of tactics. Here’s what worked:

1. I started building projects and posting about them.

Over winter break, I pivoted and started building projects with AI.

These are essentially assignments you make yourself. A lot of juniors, especially those without internships secured, have personal projects. I learned that it’s important to have a good front-end that’s accessible because recruiters who review these projects aren’t always technical.

I made videos and posted about them on LinkedIn. That garnered some traction. Some recent alumna also started reaching out to me about coffee chats.

I decided to cater all of my projects toward one or more major coding languages so hiring managers would see that I was proficient in all the major coding languages. I also launched the projects, which showed that I was able to make it a full-stack project.

2. I attended hackathons.

I started going to hackathons because they were a great way to learn new technologies and work with people.

I also practiced a lot of technical concepts through self-studying.

3. I networked a lot.

I got LinkedIn Premium for a month and started cold DMing people. I had a lot of LinkedIn connections, and a lot of important people were either my first or my second connections at the time, so I was able to message them. I think it’s really important to keep upping your connection count on LinkedIn. If you’re a student looking for a job, I recommend getting Premium for a month.

I searched for founders from UNC. I got ignored a lot, as one would expect when they beg for an internship in a LinkedIn DM. However, I received responses from two alumni, and both led to offers.

One of the professors I reached out to actually got me an AI engineering internship at Utilyst, which I’ll be working at this summer and fall.

4. I used Handshake and career fairs.

There are a lot of scam job postings. I found Handshake more reliable because it’s affiliated with schools. Career fairs are also great because if you can convince the recruiter that you’re worth their time, you may be able to skip the line and get an interview.

5. I didn’t listen to the noise.

One thing that computer science and pre-med majors have in common is that they want to be the one person crossing the finish line. There’s a lot of sabotage, and people are very business-minded.

When you go on Reddit, you’re going to see a lot of bad advice. For example, I was told to focus only on my grades, and that personal projects are useless because people can now build with AI, so they won’t help you stand out.

I have never been asked about my GPA, transcript, or even my courses. I have been asked primarily about my projects. Also, most of the interviews I’ve done actually accommodate the use of AI. Whether it’s in real life or online, sometimes the advice is not accurate.

People also make the industry seem more competitive than it is. Part of my decision to enter CS was out of spite. I was talking with one of my fellow international students who’s a CS major, and he told me I switched too late and I wouldn’t be able to get an internship. That made me want to start applying.




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Even Disney can’t outrun the international travel slowdown

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Looks like even “The Most Magical Place on Earth” isn’t enough to entice foreign travelers who are skipping the US.

Disney is facing some “international visitation headwinds” at its parks in the US, which include Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California, the Walt Disney Company said in its first-quarter earnings report on Monday.

Despite the slowdown in international visitors, the company reported growth in its experiences segment, with visitation at its domestic parks up 1% in the most recent quarter.

Hugh Johnston, Disney CFO, told analysts on a call that the company has less visibility into international visitor trends than domestic because foreign travelers tend to stay in non-Disney hotels, but that there were other indicators international visitation was down.

“As a result of that, we pivoted our marketing and sales efforts, promotional as well as marketing efforts to a more domestic audience, and we’re able to keep attendance rates high from that perspective,” he said.

Disney’s just the latest American company to feel the slowdown in foreigners traveling to the US.

International visitation was down for the eighth straight month in December, according to data from the National Travel and Tourism Office. As of October, the number of international visitors to the US was down 5.5% in 2025 compared to a year prior.

Amir Eylon, president and CEO of Longwoods International, a market research consultancy that specializes in the travel tourism industry, said visits from Canada especially declined, but that there were also significant declines in visits from countries like Germany, France, and India.

Canadian visits to the US were down 22% year-to-date as of October compared to a year prior, according to NTTO data.

“We have an image problem right now with our Canadian neighbors to the North and, as evidenced with some other countries, we have an image problem in some of our key international feeder markets as well,” Eylon told Business Insider.

His firm’s research has found a majority of Canadians say American trade policies and political rhetoric are deterring them from visiting the US in the next 12 months. Many also say they do not feel like the US is a safe place to visit.

Canadians also typically make up a significant portion of international travel to Florida, so Eylon said Disney likely isn’t the only destination in the Sunshine State feeling the slowdown.

Travelers seeking to avoid the US also have other options when it comes to experiencing Disney. Disneyland Paris is fully owned by the Walt Disney Company, while the company has minority ownership in the Disney resorts in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Disney has no ownership in Tokyo Disneyland, which operates under a licensing agreement.

Disney also benefited from consistent demand in domestic leisure travel, with Americans continuing to prioritize travel, Eylon said.

Are you an international traveler who had or has plans to visit a Disney park in the United States? If so, take our quiz below.

Have a story to share about travel to the US? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@businessinsider.com.




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International travel to the US keeps sliding. Visits fell for the 8th straight month.

by with No Comment Xpandfy

The US isn’t the tourist destination it once was.

Visits to the US by international travelers declined for the eighth straight month in December, according to data released earlier this month by the National Travel and Tourism Office.

In 2025, visits to the US were down among 10 of the top 20 overseas tourist-generating countries, including India, Germany, and South Korea.

The decline is a sustained blow to the travel and tourism industries, which in 2024 supported more than 15 million jobs, and generated about $1.3 trillion in economic output — including $181 billion from inbound international travel.

Major tourism hubs like Las Vegas are seeing widespread layoffs due to the downturn, forcing workers to get creative with their career pivots. Business Insider reported earlier this month that laid-off hospitality workers contributed to a 55% increase in dancer auditions at a Las Vegas strip club compared to the prior six months.

It doesn’t appear the travel bug has gone anywhere — just that international tourists are avoiding the US.

In Australia, for example, overseas arrivals and departures data released Friday by the country’s Bureau of Statistics shows that international travel returned to pre-pandemic levels just before the lockdowns began in 2020. Australians travelling to Canada rose 4% in the last year, 10% more visited India, and visits by Australians to China and Japan rose 20% and 21%, respectively, but 3.2% fewer booked a trip to the US.

Fewer Canadian travelers are visiting the US, as well, opting instead to go further south to Mexico, Business Insider reported last April.

Complicating demand were ongoing trade frictions, tariff battles, and geopolitical unease, which helped fuel grass-roots boycotts of US goods and, in some cases, changes in travel plans.

European travel firms and analysts pointed to tariff-driven consumer backlash and growing anti-American sentiment as factors that contributed to early-year softness in bookings, even as demand showed signs of rebounding later in the summer.

Domestic travel has helped cushion the blow so far, with the US Travel Association projecting that domestic leisure travel was forecast to grow 1.9% to $895 billion in 2025.

However, if international visitors continue to stay away, destinations that depend on overseas spending — from iconic tourism cities to national parks — could feel growing pressure as the US heads into a high-stakes stretch of global events in 2026 and beyond.




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