I’m Sara Maria Chirivilă, a third-year student at EHL, and I’ve come to realise that what attracts me most to hospitality is not the visible part of it - it’s everything happening behind the scenes.

A guest might see a beautiful hotel, an exceptional meal or a perfectly delivered service. But behind that moment are hundreds of decisions involving people, operations, finance, culture, technology and leadership.

That complexity is what I find fascinating.

I’ve had the opportunity to experience hospitality from different angles - from hotel operations and pre-opening to luxury hospitality, business and student leadership. Today, as an EHL Student Ambassador and EHL Alliance Brand Ambassador for Jumeirah, I’m particularly interested in how we can preserve the human element of hospitality while making the industry smarter, more innovative and more adaptable.

And perhaps because I come from Romania and study in one of the most international hospitality environments in the world, I’ve become very aware that hospitality is ultimately about one thing: understanding people who are different from you.

That, to me, is what makes this industry so powerful - and why I believe the future of hospitality belongs to people who can combine commercial thinking with genuine human understanding.

Sara Maria is panel expert of the Student Voices panel.