Italian Institute Hosts Fourth Annual Business Workshop
April 15, 2019 — This spring, the Italian Research Institute at Georgetown College hosted its fourth annual Innovative Solutions to Business Challenges workshop, a student-centered team competition whose winners receive paid summer internships.
The program, which is hosted in the College but open to all students, brings to campus representatives from two established Italian companies. Each presents a business challenge and asks the participating students, divided into small groups, to work all day and propose a solution. At the end of the day winning teams are selected and the prize is paid internships with the company.
All 31 students who participated in the Workshop were also invited to visit the Embassy of Italy, where they met with press official Emanuele Manzitti and learned some of the embassy’s history.
This year’s participating companies were Eni S.p.A., the Italian multinational oil and gas company & Ambrosi Food USA, a division of the Italian dairy company, Ambrosi S.p.A.
Gianni Di Giovanni, Chairman of Eni USA, presented the challenge on “The Significance of the US Withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.” For each the last four years, Eni has offered paid internships to members of the winning teams.
Di Giovanni has been pleased with Georgetown students’ performance.
“I was really surprised by the great competence, and especially by the resourcefulness and entrepreneurial spirit, of the students who participated in the workshop,” he said. “This is not only about one’s character, but is certainly an attitude that they learned at Georgetown University.”
Luigi Ambrosi (B’17), marketing director of his family business, offered to participate in the workshop and presented a challenge on “Marketing Campaign Supporting Online Sales Programs.”
Ambrosi enjoyed seeing fellow Hoyas’ creativity on display.
“As a recent alum, I was immensely proud to experience, from a different perspective, the great impression that Georgetown students make on employers. All were able to understand real life issues and come up with excellent and applicable solutions.”
Student teams and presentations are available to view on the Italian Institute website.
The winning team from the Eni challenge included Clara Lacan (C’20), Pietro Candia (F’20), Sam Oswald (F’20), and Jordon DeGroote (F’20). The winning team from the Ambrosi challenge included Chloe Li (F’21), Ben O’Hara (F’21), and Marie Luca (C’21).
“Witnessing the students’ enthusiasm and intellectual engagement in the program has been a rewarding experience for me inspiring me to continue to offer this opportunity to our students,” said Professor Serafina Hager, Director of the Italian Research Institute.