MUNCIE, Ind. - A group of young professionals from Italy got their first taste of American baseball -- Ball State style -- during a recent trip to Indiana.

Members of the group, part of Group Study Exchange sponsored by the Foundation of Rotary International, had requested to watch a baseball game.

Caryl Kelly Smith, a WBST staff member, organized details of the group's Ball State visit. The young professionals were here by invitation of Ball State and local Rotary clubs.

The five participants were from the Italian province of Umbria or one of the provinces along Italy's Adriatic coast.

The exchange program allows men and women in the early stages of their business and professional careers to travel abroad and share vocational information with professionals in another country. Team members spent four weeks studying the Indiana's institutions, economy and culture, while observing how their own professions are practiced abroad.

Ball State is well-represented in the exchange team going to Italy in June. The team includes of  John Horowitz, Ball State associate professor of economics; Ball State alumnus Andrew Peralta, a Greenfield architect, BS’91 environmental design and BA’94 architecture; and Angel Marie (Hart) Strubbe, a New Palestine High School language teacher and a 1995 Ball State graduate.