Welcome!
Welcome to our community Congratulations on being accepted into the Hotel Management School Maastricht. It won’t be long now before you start studying at our school. As far as we’re concerned, we already consider you one of us, even before you start s tudying here. We would like to wish you a warm welcome to our international hospitality community! In our community, we learn from and with one another and work hard to create a world of hospitality. By taking part in our community, you can help us to achieve this and you can rely on us if there is anything you need. This booklet introduces you to our hospitality community. We have stories to tell you so that you can later understand what it means to be one of us.
Who makes up the community? Forming a large part of our community are the students – over 1,450 Dutch and international students who are actively studying with us. A quarter of them are doing internships, but you will see most of the others at our student restaurant Refresh. Add to this the lecturers and employees working at our school. They too work hard each day to create a hospitable world. Furthermore, there are the partners in the community with whom we cooperate. These include guest lecturers from the
Foodservice sector, international 5-star hotels, organizations providing internships, or suppliers of goods and services to our Teaching Hotel. And last but not least, our global network of alumni (once you graduate, you are an alumna or an alumnus). With their warmth and hospitality, they make the world a better place, every day and everywhere. For them, it has become a ‘way of life’. The community includes both young and old. Since 1950, we have built up a large network of graduates.
The value(s) of our community It should be easy to recognize the members of our community from their way of doing things, their behaviour, and their style. This is a style that they have developed over the years. It is in their nature to be hospitable and behave in such a manner towards others. Adjacent, you will see a word cloud displaying what alumni refer to as the values of our community. These are some of the values that are reflected in their everyday behaviour. We challenge you to add new values to this cloud in the future. After all, you are a member of our community. Either as an active student or later when working at your dream job in the hospitality industry. We may even be welcoming you back as a lecturer or a guest lecturer in 30 years’ time As you can read in this booklet, it is always fantastic when we can recognize someone’s behaviour and way of doing things and say: ‘Look, they’re one of us!’
Friends for life In our community, friendships develop which often last for a lifetime. Friendships based on a common DNA and shared adventures during the years studying in Maastricht. Once you know that someone you meet is also from the HMSM, it evokes a sense of recognition, nostalgia, connection, and pride. Relationships can last for a lifetime, having contact on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis. But even if you haven’t spoken to one another in years, your shared history and ability to speak the same language ensure that you can pick up from where you left off, as though it were only yesterday. The campus is the place to develop connections and friendships. Here, you learn, live, and work together with all the other first-year students of the HMSM. Everything is within easy reach. You have to do things together. You meet up with the others at the Amphitryon student association. You share the same experiences, are all in the same boat, and take care of things together. You all pull together to organize events and bar evenings and to do the jobs that need to be done. Together, as a group and as a community.
https://www.amphitryon.nl/en/home Student association Amphitryon
Cooperation As alumni can speak the same language, they can understand one another easily and can act quickly. When supermarket shelves were running empty at the start of the Covid pandemic and nurses had no time to shop for groceries, three men came up with a plan. In just two days, they managed to build
a pop-up supermarket in the hall of a hospital with the help of the HMSM alumni network. Complete with fridges and fresh products. Short lines of communication, quick responses, and all sharing the same inspiration to be of help to one another. Therein lies the strength of our hospitality community.
Support in all its forms At the end of his propaedeutic year, an international student was faced with a dire problem – due to the political and economic situation in his home country of Lebanon, his parents were no longer able to provide the financial support he needed to complete his study programme. The Foundation HMSM came up with a solution and started a fund-raising campaign. It was a success and over a three-month period, enough funds were raised to enable the student to complete his entire four-year programme. This amount was contributed by around 150 alumni, employees, and other members of the hotel school community. It illustrates their commitment. The student is deeply grateful to those who made donations for this opportunity and now goes to lectures every day twice as motivated!
Check out this film!
A feeling of coming home Some alumni come back to Maastricht to teach after years of working around the world. To give something back by sharing their own experiences and life lessons with the new generations of students, in other words, with you. They call it ‘coming home’. Back to a familiar and trusted environment. Back to our beautiful castle. With the chance to call their former lecturers ‘colleagues’ and enjoy following a new generation of students who are brimming with dreams and just starting out on their studies and career.
We are here for one another You pursue your own dreams, but you don’t have to do it alone. At times, you might need some support during or after your studies to develop yourself even further. In our hospitality community, you can ask others for help. And, of course, you can always help others when they need it. By making use of our network, one person can set up their own business, while another
can become an international hotelier. Being here for one another – usually while enjoying a drink and a bite to eat – is an essential part of being in our network. Seeing what someone else needs and offering help without expecting anything in return – these are some of the characte ristics of our hospitality community.
Follow Boostcamp on Instagram! Watch the opening of the Student Residence!
It all starts here Soon you will be packing your belongings and moving to Maastricht. Here on campus is the new Student Residence where a room has been furnished for you. This is where all first-year students live, spread over 29 accommodation units, each housing twelve to fifteen students. The first community you create starts with the unit in which you and your fellow students live. You’ll soon notice that your unit is just one part of the whole community.
In the week before your first lessons, you will meet the other students from your class in the ‘Boostcamp’. Not everyone in your unit has the same timetable. Together with your class, you will form another community within the group of first-year students. You will also get to know students from other years and – if you want – you can join Amphitryon. Before you know it, you will feel completely at home with us in our international hospitality community.
See you soon Our relationship with our community also brings with it a certain responsibility. Those wanting to study at our Hotel School are required to embrace the values of our community and also demonstrate this in their behaviour. We invite you to become an active participant and to contribute to the values and value of our community. We are counting on you and you can count on us! See you soon in Maastricht! Check out this film!
Colophon This welcome booklet is published by the Hotel Management School Maastricht and is sent online to all accepted candidates. Abbreviations HMSM: Hotel Management School Maastricht THCB: Teaching Hotel Château Bethlehem Final editing Sylvia Knols – Verhoeven, community manager Translation DUO Vertaalburo b.v. Redactie Jeroen Frerichs Design Sanne Heuker, Twin Media b.v. Photography Ralph Sluysmans, Maartje van Berkel Editorial address Hotel Management School Maastricht Postbus 3900 6202 NX Maastricht The Netherlands communityhmsm@zuyd.nl www.hotelschoolmaastricht.nl
Follow us online if you want to stay up to date on our community’s adventures! https://www.instagram.com/hotelschoolmaastricht/ https://www.instagram.com/hmsmspeakout/ https://www.facebook.com/HotelManagementSchoolMaastricht/ https://www.youtube.com/user/HHmaastricht1