Locals Travel to Hungary with Quinnipiac U.

HAMDEN, CT -- The following area residents are among 13 Quinnipiac University students in the master of business administration program who spent two weeks in early June meeting with business and government leaders in Hungary.

• Alicia Capparucci of East Hanover, N.J.
• Gia Infantolino of Florham Park, N.J.

The students toured Parliament and met with a senior adviser to Prime Minister Viktor Orban and executives of some of the largest and most influential companies both in Europe and around the world.

E.OP-Hungaria, Exxon/Mobil, General Electric and Morgan Stanley were among the more than dozen companies that were visited. The trip culminated with the sixth annual networking event where Clea Newman, the youngest daughter of the late Paul Newman who is continuing her father's passion for philanthropic work, was expected to speak.

"The object is to expose the students to international business practices," said Christopher Ball, associate professor of economics in the School of Business and director of the university's Central European Institute, which co-sponsored the trip with the School of Business.

The Central European Institute, established in 2011 as the István Széchenyi Institute, works to broaden the university's global ties and to foster new opportunities for international education. It is based in the School of Business.

"You really have to go abroad and experience it a little to understand cross-cultural issues," Ball said.

Ball said he treats the experience as a small business going abroad rather than a class.

"We visit companies to gain a basic understanding and overview of Hungary," he said. "They're not prepackaged tours. Most of these companies have never done tours before. They are welcoming our students because they want to meet and talk with our students and attend our networking event."

The students visited two companies for two to three hours each on most days, Ball said. Traveling with Ball on the trip was Adam Aiken, assistant professor of finance, and Matthew Rafferty, professor of economics.

"They become real partners for Quinnipiac," he said. "Many of these companies have reached out about doing internships for our students."

The demand is so great that more companies have offered meetings than there is time, Ball said.

"The students get to learn about different business practices," he said.

Quinnipiac is a private, coeducational, nonsectarian institution located 90 minutes north of New York City and two hours from Boston. The university enrolls 6,200 full-time undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students in 58 undergraduate and more than 20 graduate programs of study in its School of Business and Engineering, School of Communications, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, School of Law, Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, School of Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences.