More than 1,000 guests attended the closing ceremony of the 100th anniversary of AIQS Alumni, including IQS students and alumni and representatives of the universities URL, ESADE, the University of Loyola, the University of Deusto and Deusto Business School, and members of the UNIJES and Sarrià – Sant Ignasi Jesuit Alumni associations.
More than 1,000 guests attended the closing ceremony of the 100th anniversary of AIQS Alumni, including IQS students and alumni and representatives of the universities URL, ESADE, the University of Loyola, the University of Deusto and Deusto Business School, and members of the UNIJES and Sarrià – Sant Ignasi Jesuit Alumni associations.
The stage chosen for the gala was the Palau de la Música Catalana, where the new leitmotif of the oldest student association in Spain was presented to the audience: connecting, uniting, and inspiring IQS alumni. In the words of Jordi Martí Gascón, president of AIQS Alumni, it involves "connecting friends and students from the different IQS programmes, uniting students at the institution throughout their career, and inspiring them to seek role models that help them become better individuals and professionals every day."
Dr Salvador Borrós, Director of IQS, highlighted the importance of the association during the Spanish Second Republic and Civil War when the alumni led the relaunching of the school and were paramount in developing the country's chemical industry: “We should be extremely proud of our past, but we must also know how to prepare for our stimulating future that is full of novel opportunities yet presents totally new rules for the game at the same time. We have progressed from an institution focused only on chemistry to a multidisciplinary IQS with various degrees.”
The growth and diversification of IQS was one of the points that Dr Miquel Gassiot Matas, Chair of the AIQS Alumni Centennial Committee, also highlighted. For Gassiot, IQS is a multidisciplinary university today that is responsible for research and education in Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Biotechnology, Pharmacy, Business Administration and Management, Marketing, Business Administration, International Business, and Tourism and Hospitality Management. This plurality and diversity has been enthusiastically welcomed by AIQS Alumni, producing a new character and countless possibilities.
Show on the passage of time and transformation
The closing gala of the 100th anniversary, sponsored by BASF and Catalana Occidente, ended with the performance "Transforma't," starring Cristina Casale, one of the most internationally recognised pianists in Spain. She headlined a versatile show combining music and the spoken word to represent the passage of time and the transformation of the Association of IQS Graduates, now AIQS Alumni.
Through this event, AIQS Alumni brought a close to a year celebrating its creation on 23 January 1921, including numerous conferences, the new AIQS Alumni Life platform, an event honouring the companies of 1955, and several alumni gatherings such as the visit to the Cave of Saint Ignatius in Manresa and the Young Hub party at the DAMM factory.