“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana

History is not only a course you study, it is the road walked by those before us. It gives us the opportunity to learn from their lives and evolve from what we once were. 

One of the great lessons of history is World War II and the horrors it caused in Europe and all over the globe. The biggest example of this is Auswitchz, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp and the most lethal of all. 

Our students had the chance to visit the Auschwitz exhibition held here in Madrid, where they could see history without traveling hundreds of miles to where it happened. They could find find small personal belongings from some of the victims, structural elements of the camp, documents and unpublished audio-visual materials that documented what happened.

It may seem as a distraction for students of business or hospitality to visit such a place, but in reality in enriches their understanding of what happened during previous generations. It serves as a universal warning of the dangers that stem from hatred, intolerance, and antisemitism, and make us see human cruelty at its uttermost. It is only by remembering that we never forget and therefore are capable of stopping it from ever happening again.

Because, in the end, as the Philosopher George Santayana said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The main goal here at Schiller International University is to develop students that will thrive in the real world far beyond university; people that, even before graduating, are ready to engage in todays business world.

In order to make that happen, we reinforce the student’s perspective of the world outside of these university walls by creating opportunities for them to visit and face the day to day operations of companies that are driving their sectors economic boom.

SIU Madrid’s Graduate Advisor, Edgar Barroso, took action based on this vision and organized the annual visit to Inditex headquarters in Coruña. Students had the opportunity to visit the clothing design department and understand the complexity of the logistics behind the company. As the students themselves remarked, the departments run as smoothly as a Swiss Watch, judging by the level of precision and attention with which they arrange every single store and window dressing.

The highlight of the visit according to most of our students was the company’s approach to data analysis. Inditex’s data management system allows the company to know the most viewed articles worldwide in real time, ensuring that the supply and demand of the products are well adjusted. Also, as some of the students remarked, this experience has helped them in their career decision-making process, some of them even engaging in an opportunity to work in the textile sector after graduation.

This experience is not only valuable to the students as a career opportunity, but also gives them the chance to develop their views on the future workplace they want to create. The environment you are a part of when you start in a company plays an important role, from employee morale to the purpose that drives them. We must never forget it is people we are working with and a good social experience boosts any organizations results, as a student explained.

Every student enjoyed the opportunity to discover more about the work environment at Inditex, highlighting that when visiting the company’s museum they discovered the origin of the multinational enterprise it has now become, inspiring many to passionately believe in their own entrepreneurial dreams.

How many of us have lived in a city for a long time, but never had the opportunity to discover everything that the city has to offer. That is exactly why Madrid Inside and Out exists, to give every student the opportunity to know this city, regardless if they just arrived or if they were born here.

The students had the opportunity to walk around Madrid exploring its history, identifying each location with the lives that gave them their own distinctive flair. It is now that every student can walk around not only sensing the vibe that the city has, but understanding the reason behind it, the meaning of each location and the traditions that surround the capital of the country they now live in.

The visit involved a walk around Madrid’s most and least iconic locations, the oldest library, the ancient walls, and the Madrid of the Austrians. The city is filled with an atmosphere of life that you can feel from the very moment you step foot in its streets. From the diversity of the center to the most “madrileño,” everyone discovered that this city has a lot more to offer than what they expected.

Thank you José Pinto, Undergraduate Advisor at Schiller’s Madrid Campus for this amazing opportunity to discover Madrid.

When you enter the realm of hospitality and tourism management, you realize how much of your career is based on the experience of others. Entrepreneurs who pursued their dreams of creating something that will have that wow effect or something that will develop their clients opportunities and resources. Therefore, much of the studies in this degree need to be outside of the classroom, learning from those who are developing these ideas now, for the future ahead.

That is exactly what we did at Schiller Madrid this week! We went to the biggest fair venue in Madrid, IFEMA, home of some of the largest trade shows in Europe, to talk to those that manage the day to day, the logistics, the experience that everyone has when visiting each of the events happening at IFEMA.

This was an enriching experience that reminded us how important it is to have a network of businessmen  and entrepreneurs around you that can invest their applied knowledge into our development as students.