Csenge Balogh, Széll Kálmán Public Policy Fellow
Csenge Orsolya Balogh is completing her second year in International Business and Economics at Corvinus University of Budapest while also being a student at Rajk College for Advanced Studies. Her intellectual interests lie at the intersection of economics, public policy, and health.
Csenge is guided by the conviction that global processes are best understood through the lens of interdependence between countries, institutions, and economic systems. She is currently in the early stages of research drawing on dependency theory, exploring how structural relationships between economies shape national policy choices and long-term development trajectories.
This interest in economic thinking and policymaking will take her to Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2026, where she will intern at the American Legislative Exchange Council as a Tax and Fiscal Policy Intern, working on U.S. state-level taxation policies. She will also attend George Mason University to deepen her knowledge of U.S. foreign policy and international relations. Her international outlook will further expand in spring 2027, when she will spend an exchange semester at the National University of Singapore.
Sport has always been central to her life. As a competitive athlete for more than ten years, she followed a strict training schedule that gave her a deep appreciation for the relationship between discipline, health, and performance. This experience shaped a broader conviction: that meaningful societal development is inseparable from good mental and physical health.
Driven by this belief, she first explored this professionally by supporting VitrofluidiX, a health- tech startup, with market research through the Creative Destruction Lab program organized by ESMT Berlin. Wanting to bring this passion closer to her own community, she participated in the Design Terminal startup competition with a social startup idea aimed at building stronger student communities through sport, addressing the need for belonging and connection among Hungarian college students. Alongside this, she served as project leader of MOVE at MCC, coordinating a team of fifty students and organizing sports events and community programs.
Beyond academia and work, Csenge leads an active life through running, tennis, and a long- standing dedication to the piano spanning over ten years. She is also an avid traveller, drawn to new cultures and ways of thinking, seeing travel as an extension of her lifelong commitment to learning and understanding the world.
“My philosophy is lifelong learning: absorbing something new every day, developing my own ideas and perspectives about the world, with the goal of becoming an active shaper of the future.” – Csenge Balogh