Archive for December/2010

In October, I travelled to Baku to attend an Education Fair. It was my first time in Azerbaijan and my first time in a CIS country so I must admit I was quite excited!

My first impression when coming out of the airport was that I was truly impressed by some of the buildings (old but very nice), by some of the new things they were building (a super modern stadium) and had the feeling that the country was really in a period of economic growth because new buildings for housing were rising everywhere. I was also surprised when checking out the cars: half of them were Ladas and the other half was Mercedes (well, not 50/50 but a good 45/45%). I saw different parts of the cities, some that clearly reminded me that the country had been part of the Soviet Union (a long time ago) and some blew me away because they were extremely modern. I also loved the old city which is beautiful. Last but not least, I found out that you can find great caviar for an excellent price in Baku.

I organized a small alumni dinner which provided me with an insight into the country directly from the people. The Fair was also an interesting experience. My conclusion was that candidates in Azerbaijan are really interested in the opportunities to study abroad.

Some people had told me: “You will see, Baku is a very industrial city” but I really liked it, the architecture and the mix between old and modern. I got a strong feeling that the country is booming and I am sure than in a few years, we will hear much more about Azerbaijan.

Laurence Friberg, IE University

Last December, Laurence Friberg and I travelled to Naples to do a presentation “Social Innovation or how to redesign the way we do Business” to AIESECers from all over Italy and to students from the University of Naples, during their conference called “Youth Driven Sustainable Change”. To summarise, we covered the subjects: Corporate Social Responsibility, Entrepreneurship and the differences between a regular entrepreneur and a social entrepreneur, and Social Innovation, explaining concepts such as System Thinking, Process Design and Design Thinking. It was illustrated by many examples and some best case practices that we use at IE.

Apart from the presentation, I’d also like to share with you Laurence’s adventures in the city. Her amusing commentary went as follows…
”I got very little time to explore the city but could get a glimpse of some part of the streets and try the delicious pizzas! In the place where we went, a Margarita (I am talking about the pizza, not the drink! :)) was only 3.5 Euros, which amazed me. I would move to Naples just to stuff myself with their delicious pizzas! What else? Well, I have to tell you I was quite scared in my taxi sometimes because they drive like crazy!!! Fasten your seatbelt because they go really fast and drive by cars or obstacles reallllllllyyyy closely! More than once, I could see the accident coming but I guess I was a bit overdramatic… However, Sergio, our representative from Italy told me that car insurance policies are much more expensive in this part of the country than anywhere else!”.
Her last anecdote happened in the airport. “I would see all those super well dressed Italian guys (because yes, I have to admit that they have a great sense of fashion and style!) walking around with white bags that they handled very carefully. I investigated and found out that they were coming from a chain who sells fresh mozzarella di bufala campana (cow buffalo). Therefore the careful handling as the mozzarellas came in their “juice”. Anyway, I thought it was far more original than the typical chocolates that you take home“.

Stay posted to read the next adventures and anecdotes of the Europe team!

Sergio and Laurence

After being on the road for the last two months, meeting many wonderful high schools students all over Europe, I was finally able to be back home, on campus in Segovia, and had a great lunch with first and second year students from our bachelor programs in business administration, communications and biology. I am so proud of them, they are exploring and showing their true potential, growing not just as a professional, but most importantly as a person.

I was especially happy to see one Rumanian student again. When I first met her she was an exceptional student who did not know whether she should study communications, business or law. At the end she decided to study communications and is very happy about it, becoming an amazing and interesting female writer. At one point in our conversation, I asked her what the best and worse thing about IE University was for her. Her answer was very interesting to me, she answered that the best and worse thing about IEU was the focus on business.

For her, she has discovered that her true love lies in writing, she wants to become a writer or a creative journalist, not a political or economic one. Writing for Vanity Fair would be one of her goals. So for her, one of the tracks of the communications program, the track on corporate and business journalism, is of no interest. But she realizes that IEU like no other university is teaching her a very valuable lesson about the world of communication. Although she has no interest in writing about business, she is aware that she will probably have to work or do business with one the few big media corporation or editorials in the world. So yes, business as a subject does not interest her, but how to succeed in the business of communication is a crucial learning for her future.

Marina Tirado Tewes