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Gaëlle, Class of 2016

Now studying: Vatel Madrid

I have fond memories of being in the first graduating cohort of ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ and to whoever is reading this, I’d like to share with you that life is not easy. You will have to pass through rough patches to be successful in what you want to be.

Since I was 7 years old, I thought that I wanted to grow up to work in a kitchen as a pastry chef. Cooking was a daily ritual in my house where my mother and I cooked everything from appetizers to desserts. We loved spending time together in the kitchen and creating dishes for the family so I thought that was my path. When it was time for me to leave ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ, I chose to attend the Culinary

Institute of America, considered one of the best cooking schools in the world. I attended one year at the CIA in Hyde Park, New York. At first, I was super excited and I loved every minute of it even though it was really hard waking up every day at 5 am to cook for 8 hours straight.

Then summer came around and I had to do my internship. I decided to do it in a catering company called Gabriela Bertagni Catering for 6 months in Buenos Aires. During my time in the internship, I experience catering for important events such as the UNICEF gala in Buenos Aires, weddings, and birthdays. That’s when everything changed and I realized that I didn’t want to work in a kitchen for my whole life. I realized that I preferred the other side of the industry, talking with people, meeting new people and organizing things.

After much deliberation, I decided to drop out of the internship and change career paths. I applied and got into one of the best schools of hospitality management in the world called Vatel. I started in Vatel Buenos Aires and then I transferred to Vatel Madrid. Now, I am in my second year, and I haven’t regretted it a single bit. I hope that once I graduate, I can work in the concert event industry and maybe one day work with Live Nation!

If you fail or think that the choice you have made turns out to not be right for you, do not give up. Be brave, try again, and find another solution!