Nationality: Mexican
Program: BBA Global Hospitality Management (specialization in Finance)
Graduated: 2011
After securing a role with multinational company Procter & Gamble, Diana Casalis found herself missing regular contact with the hospitality business. To solve this, she created her own blog, Livingeneva.com, which is now a widely acclaimed website boasting over 80,000 page views every month.
“I found myself missing the human contact that comes from the hospitality industry,” Diana said. “Not only that, but I wanted to share new places, travel ideas and exciting menus. I kept feeling frustrated that I was visiting great places that people might not know about.” This led her to creating Livingeneva.com in September 2014. Since then, she has interacted with Michelin-starred chefs, five-star hotels and international entrepreneurs. The blog’s success has secured Diana interviews in, among others, National Geographic magazine, while her writing has featured in EasyJet’s Traveller magazine.
Diana balances her blog commitments with a full-time role at multinational company Procter & Gamble. She believes that Les Roches gave her the ideal preparation for working in such a global organization. “The school gave me confidence, an openness to the world, and the mindset to keep learning,” Diana said. “This is appreciated by my employers.”
Ironically, though, Diana almost didn’t end up at Les Roches. “I don’t think I chose the school, the school chose me,” she said. “I was already enrolled at a university in Mexico. They proposed a semester at Les Roches in order to discover something new. I went there without hesitation, and loved it so much I stayed there until graduation.”
[quote]”[Les Roches is] for people ready to be open to the world around them, people that want to have international friends and experiences.”[/quote]
While studying at Les Roches, Diana was inducted into the Eta Sigma Delta honor society, which recognizes students achieving excellent grades. She would highly recommend Les Roches to those wanting a global perspective. “Les Roches is not just for people who love the hospitality industry,” she said. “It’s for people ready to be open to the world around them, people that want to have international friends and experiences.”
She still keeps in touch with her fellow alumni. “We are all super close,” Diana said. “It’s been a lot of fun, too – many of us are getting married, so we get to travel the world attending weddings, which is always a great excuse for a Les Roches reunion.”
For the future, Diana aims to continue growing her blog. “I am going to try and build my career and business around blogging, digital marketing and content creation,” she said. “Livingeneva.com allows me to travel, discover and grow in a very different way to my day job.”
Follow in Diana’s footsteps and find out more about studying for a BBA in Global Hospitality Management.
