Category Archives: Academic life

Frequently Asked Questions

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Are you too busy with your current work or studies? Do you live far away from Switzerland? If you answered yes to one of these questions, it might be quiet difficult for you to attend our Open Day so this post is for you!

Being a Student Ambassador of Les Roches for the past two semesters, I had a chance to answer plenty of students’ and parents’ questions about Les Roches and its campus life. In today’s post I would like to share some of the frequently asked questions and answer them, so that everyone gets a chance to discover a little bit more…

The list of questions below covers very different topics, including such once as: typical weather and necessary clothes, school main features, activities in and outside Les Roches, and others.

Is there anything special about the weather in Bluche? Do I need to take any special clothes?

When going to live for at least 6 months in the Swiss mountains, you need to take into consideration that the weather here is very changeable, especially during autumn and spring. Sometimes, it can happen that in the morning, when you are going to school, it is rather cold and windy, with no sun; however only 5-6 hours later it can become very sunny and quiet hot. So I would recommend having several layers of clothes, so you could easily regulate your dressing upon the weather changes.

In summer the weather generally is nicely hot and sunny and in winter it might be really freezing. Therefore, make sure you take all possible types of clothes coming to Bluche.

What is special about Les Roches study rhythm?

Generally speaking, the study rhythm in Les Roches in all the semesters is pretty balanced. Talking about academic classes, throughout every semester in each subject there are multiple tests, quizzes, and assignments which are worth parts of the final grade. Then, at the end there are final exams that differ, depending of which year you are in, from 35 % to 50 % of the overall result per subject. This way we have a good opportunity to understand the course bit by bit, moreover, putting the theory into practice by getting involved in different projects, group works and presentations.

Concerning the first semesters which include practical weeks at school, the courses are organized in a very good way as well. All semesters is built from interchange of 2 weeks academic studies (e.g. Languages, Mathematics, etc.) and 2 weeks practical studies (e.g. Craft-Based learning). Following this rhythm, we have enough time to digest all the received information and straight away apply it in our lives.

Do I need to take any additional literature with me?
All the necessary for your course books are going to be distributed to you at the start of studies. I would only recommend to get some electronic dictionaries on your laptop, at least English and French ones (if those are not your native languages), as all the lectures and textbooks in school are in English and all the life around campus is in French.

Which computer is better to take?
Mostly that depends on your own preferences (usually, choice is between Mac and Windows Operating Systems), however it might be much easier for you to use Windows, as all the subjects are explained on this system, as well as Informational Technology (IT) subject that gives you profound knowledge of using Word, Excel, etc.

What possibilities are there to learn foreign languages in Les Roches?

If you are not taking additional English course, you need to choose a foreign language since the very first semester. Moreover, the language you choose you will have to keep for at least two semesters and only after coming to your third academic semester you can change it. The variety of languages offered is quiet wide: French, Italian, Spanish, German and even Chinese. However, for Italian and Chinese languages, you can take them only after completing the first two academic semesters.

Moreover, there is an online system provided by the school, “Tell Me More”, that allows you to learn multiple languages on your own and make a significant progress, also practicing your skills with you multinational friends.

What about the surroundings? How can I spend my weekends?
For the spare time activities there are plenty of great opportunities around, such as exploring Swiss beautiful landscapes, hiking, skiing, snowboarding, bike riding, etc… Furthermore, from Switzerland you can easily reach all the famous destinations of Europe as those in France, Italy, Germany, England and Spain.

How shall I search for my internship? Can I go anywhere?
First of all, as soon as you decided to join Les Roches, start to think about your career plan. Where would you like to work in future? What kind of experience you need for achieving this goal? Are you interested by working in Asia, Europe or United States? Would you like to work only in boutique hotels or joining your favorite hotel brand? You need to answer for yourself to all those questions and then decide what your first destination will be. Faster you apply, better it is, as you will obviously have more interesting opportunities.

Also you should take into consideration possible visa issues, as an example, being Russian makes it more difficult for me to obtain a training visa to England. So, before applying anywhere, make sure that you are eligible to go for training to the destination of your choice.

Can I choose my room and a roommate?
As soon as you accepted in the school, you will be usually added to a closed Facebook group which exists only for the new students. This way you will have a great opportunity of meeting online your future classmates, getting some friends, helping each other, sharing information, etc… This is also a way of finding a roommate, if you become friends with someone and want to share a room together, you will just need to contact the school about it and get the further explanation on how to proceed with your request.

Also, even if you don’t know who particularly you would like to share your room with, I would still highly recommend to request to have a roommate of different nationality from yours. This way you will have a great chance of deep cultural exchange and understanding, as well as practicing English or maybe other languages.

Concerning the choice of room, you still may try to request in which particular building you would like to have your room, but this is not guaranteed, as it is decided upon availability.
Are there any sport and leisure activities in school?

Sure! There are a lot of team sport activities, such as basketball, volleyball, football and hand ball teams. You can also join zumba, yoga, tennis, badminton or swimming groups, as well as attending school gym.

Talking about leisure activities, there are a lot of events and trips organized by school and students, such as a shopping day in Milan, or a visit of car show in Geneva, etc…

Is there anything else you would like to know?

These were only some of the most popular questions that I was asked during the Open Days and Campus Visits. I am sure that there are lots of other ones, so please do not hesitate to contact me in the comments below or directly by my email address: arkadiya.tertychnaya@lesroches.ch

 

Only 4 weeks left until Graduation!

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I am currently in my final semester 7 of the Bachelor of Business Administration specializing in Entrepreneurship. This has been the most challenging but also the most rewarding semester. It is great to look back at four years of Les Roches education. We came together as strangers in the beginning, progressed during the years by working together and now we are approaching the final stage of graduation. Time literally flies!

Eta Sigma Delta Ceremony 2013.1

Time to specialize

This semester is very challenging, as the projects are very diverse and depend on the stream chosen. As I am specializing in Entrepreneurship, I am working with three classmates who come from New Zealand, America and Brazil on realizing a business idea. We just submitted a self-produced video to convince potential investors of our business. The location is London Heathrow Airport and deals with a unique way of Car Sharing. We literally started with a blank piece of paper and after weeks of hard work we are now ready to submit the more than 10 000 word report about our business idea, which includes our concept, the marketing strategy, organizational aspects, potential risks, and most importantly the financial aspect and feasibility.

Honors Degree

Apart from the other subjects of Tourism, Revenue Management, Business Planning, Architecture and Managing buildings, the dissertation keeps me very busy as I am applying a unique research method in a field that has never been explored before. The topic of my dissertation is “The impact of Revenue Management on disabled hotel guests”. With the help of my supervisor I am aiming for an Honors degree upon my graduation.

Eta Sigma Delta Students 2013.1

The day of graduation is in four weeks and we all have mixed emotions about it. One eye smiling and ready to face the real working life, but also one eye crying as we leave our beloved friends who became like a family for each of us.

This video will give you an insight of graduation at Les Roches:

Our Career office is giving us lots of support and organizes a wide range of company presentations and interviews on campus. Event companies, cruise lines, several other hospitality industries, even Valentino and Louis Vuitton came to recruit on campus this semester.

I will keep you all updated on my project results and I am glad to inform you that I signed my job contract. Due to so many job offers it was a very hard decision where to start off, but I will work in London for the Hotel Opening of Rosewood as a Supervisor. I am extremely delighted about this opportunity.

Best wishes from Bluche!

Lisa

Young Hoteliers Summit 2013

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“Be yourself – Make mistakes – Learn from it”
(Oliver Bonke, Senior Vice President Sales & Marketing, EAME – Starwood)

The Young Hoteliers Summit (YHS) has welcomed 65 delegates from twenty different International Hospitality schools as well as 50 industry leaders and students from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne. Coming into its fourth year, it was held from 18th to 20th March 2013. Three final year students represented Les Roches: Isabel Eisenach (Germany), Ayesha Ahmad (Brunei) and myself (from Germany as well). Mr. Remy, our Program Manager, accompanied us.

Les Roches delegates with Ted Teng, CEO Leading Hotels of the World

Spread over four days, the YHS featured a myriad of activities. One of the key features was the Challenge provided by Starwood Hotels and Resorts. The teams were made up of five representatives from different universities developing actionable business solutions in regards to Employer Branding “How can the negative image of Hoteliers be changed?” Before working on the proposal we attended theoretical sessions where I really enjoyed the panel interviews with inspiring hoteliers who included the entire audience in their discussions.

3 M’s – Mix? Moving? Missing?
Ted Teng, CEO Leading Hotels of the World stated his 10 principles to become successful. Mr. Teng’s talk about the “Daily Elevator speech” was very motivating as he stated how important it is to think on your feet. Even though we are in the world of search engines, how valuable is memorization actually? Attitude and value cannot be Googled, and have to come from the heart of a person.

We are all young graduates looking for job opportunities, Mr. Teng gave the advice to base our decision on:

  • Content of the job offer
  • Who to deal with?
  • Place of life
  • Wealth created

Considering all these aspects and doing what you believe in will create person fulfillment according to Mr. Teng. We all define our future and the success of others shall not limit us.

The YHS 2013 was an amazing event and extremely well organized by the EHL students. It was a great success in every aspect. The best of the best hoteliers came together and the opportunities for networking were endless. It was not only great to exchange knowledge and ideas with so many other students and teachers. Moreover the YHS also enabled us to interview industry leaders and other participants for our dissertation, which we will submit in May to obtain our Honors degree.

 

Between High School and Les Roches

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If someone were to ask how I’ve spent the past eight months after finishing high school; the answer would be; waiting in anticipation. My mum has always taught me that patience is a virtue and I have struggled with this throughout my life. My patience has definitely been put to the test as I wait for what feels like a lifetime for the 7th of August 2012.

Our final leavers service at Chisipite Senior School

Having finished high school last year in November, I have had to keep myself busy or I might have gone a bit insane. Firstly, was the hype and general excitement that comes with graduating and finishing my final exams. At my school the tradition is a houseboat trip up lake Kariba with with lots of friends to celebrate an end to six long years of hard work filled with exams. New Year’s followed and that was spent with even more friends in Victoria Falls where there was a “Falls Fest” which was very exciting for us as there were live performances from some talented acts from South Africa.

On a pontoon on lake Kariba waiting for sunset

The mood certainly changed when many of those friends began to leave for university in January and it was time to say goodbye. It was such a contrast to the December frenzy and fun because now we were leaving all that behind. Everyone who had been on the same path for as much as thirteen years, were now all going their separate ways.

After saying goodbye, I decided I needed to immerse myself completely into something new, so I started working and doing vocal training lessons here in Harare to pass the time. I worked in my family restaurant called ‘The African Affair’ for about four months. I must say that I have learnt quite a lot about working in the kitchen and also more about my culture in that I got a chance to explore a lot more African dishes that I had not been exposed to on a daily basis.

I am particularly excited about the cultural evening at Les Roches to perhaps get a chance to showcase some of these dishes to my fellow classmates and to learn more about their cultures.

Besides being something I am very passionate about, I am extremely excited to be exposed to the many cultures at Les Roches.

 

 

 

A bazaar in the Pink City Long flight India

After the job in the restaurant, I had saved up quite a bit of money so I decided to head to India for a short holiday. I was visiting mainly Jaipur which is a very traditional part of India and women have to be completely covered at all times. This turned out to be a huge problem because when I was there the temperatures were as high as 50’C and I found it very difficult to adjust to the climate, hence my stay in India was shortened. I quickly returned home to the Zimbabwean winter, which is warm and moderate as far as winters go and that was a very welcome change. Not having really travelled alone I found myself very excited to be back in my own country even though I was only away for a week. It was good to see my family and a lot of my friends were back for their break from university.

Long flight India

It is good to be home, the winter is nearly over and we are heading into Spring. At the moment; in this final last stretch before school I have been working for my mum’s cosmetics company with one of my very good friends, Danielle, organizing marketing events for the company.

 

Bazaars in the Pink City

visa

Beautiful Indian Sunset

Every time I log onto Facebook, I go straight to the Les Roches For New Students page and I see how excited my fellow classmates are. Packing seems to be the subject that we are all talking about at the moment and I am getting into a bit of a panic because I see that a few people have already started packing. The method I usually use is making a very comprehensive list and when something comes up I add it on the list then I’ll put everything into suitcases and boxes perhaps a week before my departure. I find this much easier because I don’t forget as much. I got an idea from the Facebook group to pack some things into a box and send them to the school which they said is fine all you need to do is put your name on the box and send it. For those of you who like to travel light this could be a better option because there is no way carrying around three suitcases in airports could be fun.

I asked Giovanni Odaglio who started in the January 2012 batch a few questions that could be helpful to us new students. Below is the interview:

1. What did you find were the most essential items to pack when you had arrived on campus? (for instance did you realize you should have brought something that you didn’t)

The most essential items to pack were without any doubts the clothes and the IT stuff. After a few weeks due to the space that we have I realized that perhaps I brought to many shirts.

About this I have to say that in any case I was not too worried, my hometown is just 4 hours from Bluche so if I needed something I just drove back home for a weekend.

2. What items would you advise to buy at home and bring with? (or is everything pretty accessible)

I would say that everything is pretty accessible. Of course, I am not speaking about business suits and shoes. In particular for the girls I would advise to bring pretty shoes without heels for working in the market place for the first year. You can find them in Sierre but are expensive and not very good.

3. For the formal dress up; being a student already you know everything about it. What would you advise for us new students to bring in terms of quantity in order for us to be comfortable?

As I said before, I advise to bring with you comfortable business shoes. Sometimes you will have to work for 8/9 hours and without them it will be very hard.
About the numbers of items it depends on how many times you would like to do the laundry, which is pretty expensive. I brought ten white shirts and five business suits. I have to say that I never had problems about what to wear. (Remember, the white shirt can be washed by the school’s laundry)

4. How often do you have exams and tests?

HOI and HOII are divided in 2 practical weeks and 2 academic weeks. Basically every second Friday you will have exams on everything you have done. For the academic weeks, you will not have all the exams on Friday but you will still have on the second week, just in different days. For some practice, you will also have some theory exam on the second Thursday. (Usually during practice you will have 1 or 2 practical exam and 1 theory exam).

5. Lastly but certainly not least could you briefly describe your personal view on the nightlife and the activities to do in Switzerland.

What I can say is that you will not really understand what Les Roches nightlife is like until you live it. I just love the school, the campus and everything about it.

During the week most of the people are very quiet then, on Friday…crazy les Rochians.. Just remember that in Switzerland the life cost is higher than the rest of Europe so one night could cost a lot, in particular if you don’t have a car. (The way up with a cab costs around 30 CHF.)
About the activities, the school organize a lot of things, you just have to go in front of the market place and sign in which one you would like to participate.

Thank you very much Giovanni.
Goodbye is the topic that is fast approaching and it is difficult because I am extremely excited to start living the Les Roches way of life. On the other hand, I am also having to say goodbye to a lot of people that have always been a constant in my life. I realize that it will be difficult for many of us to say goodbye and it is a bittersweet feeling because there is so much Les Roches has to offer us and we will have a chance to build new memories with new people in a new place. I believe this definitely outweighs the sad part which is saying goodbye to the old and the familiar. For me, my family and community in Zimbabwe has always been my safety net that will now only be available via virtual communication. Yet I cannot help but still be excited. There’s always Christmas break to come home to…

Lake Kariba Sunset

 

65 Days in Switzerland

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Hello friends!

I apologize for the very late update but during the past weeks I’ve been so busy with school and travelling to different places that the time to write was non-existent.

Since my last post I’ve been:

  • Skiing and drinking hot chocolate by the slopes

  • Organizing a welcome party for all new and returning students in one of the bars of the school

  • On a trip to Milan. It took us about three hours to drive there from school. We checked in at the Nhow Hotel, went to brunch, walked around the city centre and looked at all the nice shops. We went for dinner, drinks and dancing and drove back the next day. A very short but intense trip and I can’t wait to go back when the weather is a bit nicer
  • On another trip to a place called Blatten where I got to experience the Swiss carnival and go sledging down a mountain in the pitch dark (so scary!)

 

  • Travelling to London for a weekend to celebrate a friend’s birthday
  • Enjoying the sun in parks, on a balcony, and during the “après ski”

  • Hanging out with my family who came to visit for a week
  • Booking a flight home to Sweden for Easter break

But I’ve also been…

  • Finishing a huge project involving six different subjects
  • Writing seven out of nine mid-term exams
  • Preparing three presentations
  • On many interviews and presentations with many hotel companies

I’m enjoying my time here in Switzerland a lot and time flies by so fast it’s hard to believe we are even past the half point. In three to four months I’ll be living and working in a city, but I have no idea where…That’s the beauty of the hotel industry–you have no idea where life (or work) will take you.

X Filippa

First weeks at Les Roches

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These first few weeks of Les Roches have been quite stressful for me personally. It’s been a bit difficult to get back into the swing of things and get my brain into gear! Hence the late blog post!

So after many months of waiting impatiently, I have finally arrived on campus at Les Roches! It was a beautiful blue-sky, sunny day making it a perfect day to drive down to the Valais.

The campus is just as amazing as I remembered from my visit, albeit complete with a bit more snow than when I last came!

Upon entering the main building, I was greeted by a very friendly third-year student who assisted me through the check-in procedure. First there was a visit to student accounting to check that everything was in order with payments, etc, then a quick stop to the academic office to sign some forms and to choose the foreign language that we wish to study for the following semesters. I chose to study Spanish as I have never taken Spanish in my life, which should be interesting!
Next stop was to the student services department where I was issued with the all important student card and the keys to my room which was very exciting.

My building is PF3 or ‘Peters Farm 3’, it is a nice building with excellent views of the mountains. Unfortunately for me, it is a building situated several minutes away from the main building – which usually wouldn’t bother me at all! However, due to my ankle/knee injuries it has proved quite difficult sometimes to move around campus with all this snow and ice!

The first week at the school was induction week, where we were introduced to our teachers and given some very interesting presentations about the academic and practical schedules.
We were also given all of the books that we will need for this semester, it was very exciting (although quite nerve-wracking at the same time) to get a first look into what we will be studying!

One of my main worries before arriving on campus was how it would be to initially meet new people and make new friends. But that was something I shouldn’t have worried about because I really like my class and all the people in it!
It is true what they say – Les Roches is not just a school, it’s a way of life.
Anyway, I better get back to studying! Talk to you soon.

Sam

First few weeks in the white alps

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Bonjour tout le monde!

What an intensive start (hence the late update)… The past couple of weeks have been amazing, and I’m so happy I decided to finish HOIII here in Switzerland.

The school impressed me from the very moment I arrived at the airport. They were waiting with a large Les Roches sign for me and other new students, gave us water and snacks, and took care of all luggage. A big bus was waiting outside and the ride to the campus took roughly two hours. After a steep climb up the mountains we reached our final destination – a tiny place called Bluche. After I did my check-in, I was assigned a room, and later on I met up with a bunch of friends for dinner and drinks. Since it was a Saturday, we all were curious about the nightlife so we took a taxi to the nearby village Crans and danced until our feet became sore. Since there are only a few places to go out, people here tend to stick together and that makes it so much more fun.

Monday morning it was time for classes straight away. My year is divided into five groups, and compared to Marbella, that is a lot since we only had three over there. First week was basically an introduction to all teachers, subjects and classmates, and on the second week projects, quizzes, assignments, presentations and exams kept on coming in. I have also joined the Student Committee marketing team where we promote events and activities such as crazy mufti days and parties, so that (along with this blog) keeps me busy, to say the least…

I am very happy that the school offers us to move between the different campuses, and although the contrasts between the schools are quiet big, it’s still the Les Roches spirit all over…

Next weekend awaits a welcome party thrown by the Student Social Committee plus a spontaneously planned trip to Milan… Promise to update you all on that.

Ciao for now!

X Filippa

 

First Impressions

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Hey to everyone from the beautiful Les Roches!

I am not able to express my feelings in just one blog. If you are not here in Bluche, it is difficult to understand exactly the feeling you get when you are walking around the campus, and the amazing scenery that I am able to see from my balcony every time I wake up, but I will try to give you an idea about Les Roches and the area.

First of all, when you will come to Les Roches you will take part in the induction week. The purpose of the induction week is to learn about the regulations, to familiarize us with the campus and to share important information about the program. I have to say that it was an overload of information the first week but it was worth it in order to understand some important details that I didn’t know.

After the first week, some of us started with academics and some of us with practical, working in the restaurant outlets of the school. If you do not have any work experience don’t panic because the supervisors and the teachers have a lot of work experience in the hospitality industry and they act like workmates and not as a teachers. They try to help us a lot and to give solutions to possible problems.

I was in the first group and I started with academics for the first week. Believe me, if you have a passion for hospitality this is the place that you are going to learn the extra tips for a successful hospitality career. Every class is really interesting, it is not like a typical class, the faculty has a passion for what they are doing. The teachers share their experience from the industry and you can see in their faces that they love what they are doing. We had a lot of discussions, sharing opinions and generally a really friendly environment in the class. One of the classes that I found really interesting among the others is the Bar and Beverage class where we start learning about the history of wine. In the future, we are going to have wine tasting and many more activities like culinary visits.

Now I really want to focus on the social life of Les Roches. A lot of us were afraid it would not be the best. Believe me, the social life here is amazing! Greece, where I came from, has a world renowned nightlife but here you can have a lot of fun, trust me. Here in Bluche we have two bars where everyone goes. The first one is the Sports Bar, a bar operated by Les Roches students and faculty where you can meet most of the students having fun from 9 -11.30 pm. The second is the Atlas bar, very nice atmosphere and Dj Baldo Durazzo from Napoli, my best friend here in Les Roches, rocking on the decks every Friday night. Ten minutes by taxi is the renowned resort of Crans Montana. A place full of restaurants, bars and clubs; every Friday night after Atlas and Sportsbar everyone “goes up” as we say here. In Crans, you can find clubs and bars full of people, excellent cuisine, and traditional restaurants.

This week, I am in stewarding and service. Because of my work experience it is much easier for me but I am not able to say it is not challenging. Don’t worry, because in Les Roches you will meet some of the kindest and friendliest people. Everyone smiles and try to help each other. Team work is an integral part of hospitality and every day the faculty focuses on that.

Thank you very much for your time, I need to leave now or I will lose my duty. Believe me I can understand now the “Les Roches way of life” and if you want to be successful you will love it too.

Work hard during the day, play hard during the night.

Leandros Pembos

IP Event: Dinner with a Murderer

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During the past weeks, we (the students of PGD II) have been working so hard in order to put together an event that meets the standards of our school, Les Roches.

This IP EVENT (Integrated Project) is our most important project where we have to put into practice all of our knowledge regarding Events Management from PGD I and PGD II courses and turn it into a practical event. For this event, we invite students and faculty of the school to come to a dinner held in one of the school facilities on a Saturday night. The theme of the event is decided after the presentations of all groups of PGD II, who work throughout the first part of the semester to win the opportunity to lead and manage this kind of event. In our semester, Autumn 2011, the winning theme was “Dinner with a Murderer”. It was an interesting, new and challenging idea that was proposed by a group of PGD students and we all have been working very hard in order to accomplish and be successful in the organization of a theme based event like this where everything in the evening has to be appropriate and match the name of the event.

We have been divided into groups and we will all be working on the pre-event organization and during the event. Some are assigned to kitchen and started already to cook a trial experience of how the evening will be like. Others started with the service meetings to rehearse all of the techniques for a 5 course meal to provide the best service possible. Students have also started rehearsing the preparation of drinks. The decoration, marketing, and sales have been assigned to other students, as is my case, and I have started to organize the entertainment for that evening. It has been fun to organize acting sketches with my classmates. The idea of this theme is for guests to be entertained by finding out who committed a crime in the restaurant! In this case, who killed the chef!

Video of the rehearsal of the acting 

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The clues are given by actors following a script written according to the food that is being served, the dances performed and all of the acting happening throughout the dinner. It is an interesting project, as it’s not only a simple dinner! A lot more effort is required to entertain our guests… I wanted to share with you some of the rehearsals in Market Place (the most popular restaurant at the school where students eat) that is usually the place where these events take place each year. It has been a lot of hard work, but also fun, to act and dance to a song that corresponded to the theme.

In the acting, I was performing the role of a waitress that was there during the “murder of the chef” and who becomes also a suspect along with other waiters and waitresses. I also prepared the choreography for the song Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson which met the theme and the acting and I did it with the collaboration of other students from the school. Thanks to all of you who helped in the preparation of this event. In my next blog, I will share with you some pictures of this wonderful evening that will certainly turn out to be a success!
Video of the rehearsal of the dance:

YouTube Preview Image

 

Back from midterm break!!!

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The time has passed so fast and unfortunately I have not been able to keep up with my blogs as usual, the school really has kept us quite busy with assignments and midterm exams! I will compensate with some important information, fun stories and events at Les Roches that I have been collecting in the last few weeks for those of you who are interested in the student life at the school.

Midterm break really was a breath of fresh air allowing us to continue with school assignments and lessons. As I have stated before, the teaching system at Les Roches evaluates the performance of students in several ways and some projects require you to put all your effort and integrate the knowledge you have of all subjects. Examples of these are the so-called IP projects.

But what is IP? It stands for Integrated Project and although it is not a very popular term among first year students it is all you will hear among people from third year (H03) and postgraduate students (like me) just before the midterm break! After it has been submitted, there are only a few exams or projects left et voila! The ambiance at the school changes as everyone gets ready to leave for midterm break! Bellow just some random pictures of some of my friends after those long study hours at school haha!

Now, passing to a more interesting topic, I wanted to talk about internships. As we all know, here at Les Roches, internships should be done after the completion of a course.

Depending on the program that you are following, the school encourages you to get work experience in hospitality related establishments in order for you to apply all the techniques learned at the school into real work situations according to a specific hospitality area that draws your interest the most.

Within any hospitality related establishment there are endless opportunities for students from our school to participate, learn and get professional and life experiences which in the near future might be highly valued by an employer. Besides, you never know what abilities you are capable of and some new talents might surface as you progress in your internship.

The options are endless for you to find your new location in the world; from a 5 star hotel in a cosmopolitan city in Europe, to an exotic beach resort in Southeast Asia or even a ski resort in the mountains of Switzerland, there really are no limits as long as you keep an eye on immigration regulations and more specifically into the requirements that recruiters are looking for. You have to get informed about where you are going and a new blog post will be informing you more about it next week.

For now, I would like to share with you an interview with Johanne Fremmich, current H02 student at Les Roches who gladly agreed to give us feedback about her internship experience. We wanted to find out how involved she was with her role as a trainee at the Hotel Arts Barcelona and as you will see, the results are great and she loved her experience!