2 Students to Travel to Hungary with Quinnipiac

Alicia Capparucci of East Hanover and Gia Infantolino of Florham Park are among 13 Quinnipiac University students in the master of business administration program who will spend two weeks in early June meeting with business and government leaders in Hungary.

The students will tour Parliament and meet with a senior adviser to Prime Minister Viktor Orban as well as meet with the 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 are among the more than dozen companies that will be visited. The trip will culminate with the sixth annual networking event where Clea Newman, the youngest daughter of the late Paul Newman, is 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 is co-sponsoring 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 will visit two companies for two to three hours each on most days, Ball said. Traveling with Ball on the trip will be 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.