Global Engagement
Global Entrepreneurs Address UConn Students
Crypto-Friendly Prague
What I will miss the most about studying abroad is the friends I have met and exploring all that Prague has to offer. Over the past month, I have made it a mission to go to a new café every day as coffee shop culture in Prague is surprisingly one of the best in Europe.Continue Reading
Kasia’s Blog: Switzerland
Travelling from one major city to another had led me to forget my love for nature. That is until my friends and I travelled to Interlaken, Switzerland. Switzerland is filled with delicious chocolate and cheese, but best of all the Swiss Alps! Swiss cows aren’t the only animals that are extremely happy in Switzerland, according to the World Happiness Report Switzerland ranks number 2 in happiness. I couldn’t wait to see the secret to this country’s success in person.
The first day we arrived in the small town of Interlaken, we decided to make our way over to Murren, a village high up in the mountains. I guess we were so excited for the trip we forgot to pack our winter boots because we all tracked through several inches of snow in our sneakers. Every time I had seen photos of Switzerland it looked like something out of a fantasy movie, but it was better. The mountain we hiked across were home to some pretty epic views as the snow made a magical scene, reminding me of the North Pole Village from the movie Elf.
Interlaken is well known for being the outdoor sports capital of Europe and a visit to Interlaken is not complete without trying at least one of its many extreme activities: canyoning, skydiving, rafting, hang gliding, snow shoeing, or finally paragliding. After our trip to the snowy mountains, we rushed to make it on time to paragliding. I think that all humans have an innate fear of heights to different degrees, and it was time for me to feel the adrenaline rush of flying over the Swiss alps. My parents were upset with me for signing up and concerned for my safety. My dad said “You only have one life to live”, but I told him that is exactly why I wanted to try this. Seeing the city from above the mountains as I flew at cloud level was by far the best experience of this trip.
In the end, I realized it’s no big secret why Swiss people are happy. Community is clearly a very important value people that live there hold. On every hike that we had gone on there was not one person that had passed us without cheerfully saying hello, and all the customer service we encountered involved cheerfully and excitedly helping my friends and I. I came home back to Prague with a major lesson learned; simple acts of kindness can make a tremendous impact on others.
Kasia Kolc
Student, UConn School of Business
Kasia Kolc is a senior studying Accounting. She is writing this blog as part of her scholarship from the Global Business Programs Office. Kasia interned at PwC, a Big 4 public accounting firm, this past summer. She had also interned in Wealth Management at Merrill Lynch and Janney Montgomery Scott. A fun fact about Kasia is that she was a girl scout in the Polish Scouting Organization for 10 years.
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CIBER Extends Exporting Compliance Program to PMBAs
The Center for International Business Education &Research (CIBER) is creating a new, professional development program in exporting for students in the part-time MBA program in Hartford.Continue Reading
Dean’s Report 2018
Entrepreneurship
When entrepreneur Peter J. Werth pledged more than $22 million to the University of Connecticut last winter, for the creation of the Werth Institute for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, a new chapter was written in UConn’s history.Continue Reading
Budaful Weekend in Budapest
Whenever travelling Europe came to my mind, Hungary was never really at the top of my list of countries to see. But this was a huge misconception! I spent this weekend in Budapest and it was one of my favorite cities I have been to yet.
My friends and I took a 7-hour train ride there from Prague. Although this may seem like a long while, the time flew by as we chatted, laughed, and even spent some time at the train restaurant getting food and drinks. When we arrived at the beautiful main railway station, I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere of the city. Budapest felt like a mix of Prague and Athens, and this climate traces back to their long history. Hungary is a Slovak country just as the Czech Republic, but there was a huge Mediterranean influence because it lays in the south-eastern region of Europe. So, some of my favorite foods like hummus, pitas, and Turkish coffee were all local and available as well as Hungarian food including the famous goulash and the fried langos. Plus, because the exchange rate is 280 Hungarian Forints per one US dollar, a lot of things like food, drinks and activities are cheap which definitely helps on a student budget. But if anyone does decide to visit Hungary, make sure you’re prepared to use your math skills for the exchange!
The great market in the city was incredible because Hungary has so many unique staples of the nation and its culture. I became overwhelmed with the scent of Hungarian pepper, some of the best pepper in the world, and all the beautiful crocheted cloths, shirts, and pillow cases with the gorgeous native Hungarian flowers. I couldn’t leave without purchasing sweet and spicy pepper, and an intricately embroidered cloth.
One of my favorite aspects of the city was its ruin bars. It’s easy to visit these bars and clubs and think that it is simply a very cool nightlife scene, but they are much more emblematic than that. The once beautiful part of Budapest called the Jewish Quarter, became the Jewish Ghetto during World War II. After thousands of Jewish people were deported, their abandoned homes and shops became a rotting, dark memento of what occurred during the war, and so there was never any desire to restore the area for decades after. That is until some brave people opened the first ruin bar called Szimpla in 2002. The concept revolved around them merely finding the oldest, most rotted building filled with objects that used to be owned by the owners from long ago, organizing the colorful items as furniture and decoration and serving drinks. That’s all. These men that started Szimpla Bar had no idea what the idea would spiral out to be. Now there are at least a dozen ruin bars and the once sad Jewish Quarter has transformed into the coolest part of the time with the best nightlife.
Budapest, also sometimes called the “Paris of the East”, is a city of spas. Thermal baths are a major attraction in Budapest because there are many natural warm spring waters under the city. At first I didn’t really understand why anyone would want to bathe in basically one giant bath with strangers, but the bathing culture goes back centuries as far as ancient Roman times. The mineral rich waters are said to be medicinal, and bathing in the warm pools is said to relieve a variety of conditions. So, even though the temperature wasn’t very outdoor swim friendly, we went to go relax at the palace of the healing Szechenyi Baths, the biggest thermal bath in Budapest. This palace of baths was incredible because it had a wide variety of pools with various sizes, facilities, activities, temperature, saunas, and steam rooms. People flooded the spa looking to feel the healing power of the water, use the jets in the pools, dive into the cold plunge pools after spending time in a steamy sauna, or laugh at the whirlpools. I very much enjoyed getting lost in the dozens of rooms in the palace, while attempting to try each and every temperature of bath.
I could write about so many unique aspects of Budapest but that would require much more than one blog post. Budapest is a place where everyone should make it out to with a good group of people, and a readiness to become infatuated with the culture, architecture, nightlife and food.
Kasia Kolc
Student, UConn School of Business
Kasia Kolc is a senior studying Accounting. She is writing this blog as part of her scholarship from the Global Business Programs Office. Kasia interned at PwC, a Big 4 public accounting firm, this past summer. She had also interned in Wealth Management at Merrill Lynch and Janney Montgomery Scott. A fun fact about Kasia is that she was a girl scout in the Polish Scouting Organization for 10 years.
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CIBER Case Challenge Draws from U.S., Italy and South Africa
The UConn Center for International Business and Education Research (CIBER) held its 15th annual case competition this month, hosting global-minded business students during a four-day event.Continue Reading
Kasia’s Blog – A Weekend in Poland
November 1st marks one of the most important days in Poland. It is the annual national holiday All Saints Day, which is followed by on November 2nd with All Souls Day, also sometimes known as The Day of the Dead. This is an official public holiday so all schools, banks, businesses, and offices are closed. Special church services are held at the cemeteries to commemorate the saints and people lay flowers and candles on the graves of the deceased family members and friends. It is believed that these candles help the departed souls find their way through the darkness. The graves in Poland are very unique as families invest a lot of time and money to ensure that the grave for their loved ones are beautiful and grand.
This weekend was a very special one to me that created tremendous emotion within me and left me with a wonderful forever memory. I traveled to visit my grandmother in Lomza, Poland. Lomza is a small city a bit over an hour from Warsaw, the capital of Poland. I rarely have the occasion to see my babcia (polish word for grandmother) since we live across the Atlantic from each other, so when I asked her if I could visit her for the holiday weekend it sparked tremendous happiness within both of us. I have only had the chance to visit Poland in the summer months in the past, so I knew that this would be probably one of my only opportunities to celebrate of my passed family.
Preparation for November 1st sure is a process. My babcia was telling me about how the week leading up to it she spent her days cleaning all the graves and searching for the most beautiful flower bouquets and candles before all the shops were deserted of the items in order to complete her project of decorating the graves. When we arrived, there was a rush of crowds all scrambling to make it to the prayers hosted at the cemetery. It almost reminded me of a small carnival as there were flowers and candles being sold on every street corner, bread baskets for people to munch on, and even cotton candy for the kids. Not one grave went undecorated. As seen in my photo most graves have benches planted next to them so that family and friends could sit for a while and spend time with their beloved ones. As we traveled from one grave to another my babcia told me about the individuals and their history. It was incredible to be able to listen about my family’s past and to share a few tears with my grandma because these topics often go unspoken about.
In Poland, holiday meals are especially sacred and the family dinners were filled with specifically planned meals including bigos, pierogi, soups, and potatoes. Every day the table for breakfast, lunch and dinner was filled with freshly baked pastries, traditional polish cuisine, coffee and tea. It was incredible to see how much food I could consume in one weekend, as saying no to a grandmother’s food is especially hard! All the travelling I have done these past two months has been unreal, but this weekend was extra special.
Kasia Kolc
Student, UConn School of Business
Kasia Kolc is a senior studying Accounting. She is writing this blog as part of her scholarship from the Global Business Programs Office. Kasia interned at PwC, a Big 4 public accounting firm, this past summer. She had also interned in Wealth Management at Merrill Lynch and Janney Montgomery Scott. A fun fact about Kasia is that she was a girl scout in the Polish Scouting Organization for 10 years.
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Mike Koppel ’78 Supports International Immersion Program
Alumnus Michael Koppel ’78, the former executive vice president and chief financial officer of retail giant Nordstrom Inc., and his family, have given a generous gift in support of students participating in an international, business-immersion program.Continue Reading