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Partnerships

Building meaningful relationships with organizations in the industry has been an integral part of FIU's Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management, a top hospitality program in Miami. Our partners come from all over the world and have been valuable in efforts to expand funding opportunities to students, serve the local community, provide employment experiences, and deliver the resources needed to advance the quality of education and service provided to students and alumni.

Our largest partnership is with the Chaplin family, who the school is named after. The Chaplins are co-owners of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, one of the largest, privately-held alcohol beverage distributors in the world. The Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Center is one of the school’s focal points and houses, the Bacardi Center of Excellence and its Bacardi Center of Excellence classroom, the Wine Spectator Restaurant Management Laboratory, the Badia Spices Food Production Laboratory and the Quirch Foods Hub.

Bacardi Center of Excellence Classroom

In the Bacardi Classroom at the Chaplin School's Southern Wine & Spirits Beverage Management Center, a physical manifestation of CasaCuba@Chaplin, the emblazoned walls can tell the story of a spirit’s ingredients, from the unique strain of yeast that Don Facundo Bacardí Massó found growing in the sugarcane fields outside Santiago de Cuba, to responsible sourcing of sugarcane-derived products and packaging materials. All core classes are held in this space, creating an emotional connection and brand loyalty between Bacardi brands and Chaplin’s future on-premise professionals.

Wine Spectator Restaurant Management Laboratory

This fully operational restaurant serves as an on-site laboratory in which students can get the experience of operating a restaurant without having to leave campus. The Advanced Food Laboratory and the Mel Dick Wine Tower provide students with dedicated spaces to practice their skills in the areas of food and beverage management. Technology is integrated seamlessly through the use of cutting-edge tools that provide guests and students with an experience that can be found in highly rated commercial restaurants.

Badia Spices Food Production Laboratory

With more experience, students are able to move on to the Badia Spices Food Production Laboratory, which services the Wine Spectator Restaurant Management Laboratory. Fully wired, this advanced prep facility utilizes tablet technology in its operations and gives students hands-on management experiences with dining events, hosted by the Chaplin School. The space also provides state-of-the-art instructional technology in over 2,200 square feet of space. Students receive hands-on learning in food production and innovation with access to a specialized area where they can develop, test and taste new product ideas and solutions for the industry.

Quirch Foods Hub

The Quirch Foods Hub is a shared space within the school’s food production laboratories. The Hub is located as an offset space in between the Culinary Demo Lab and the Badia Spices Food Production Lab and provides a comfortable environment for students to be able to interact with each other, sit down for a meal they prepared themselves, or just hang out in between classes. Quirch Foods also established the Quirch Foods First-Generation Scholarship to support undergraduate students at the Chaplin School who demonstrate exceptional academic merit and passion for the food and beverage industry. The strategic partnership between FIU and Quirch Foods also will provide students with opportunities to work on innovative projects with Quirch Foods and participate in management-level internship and mentoring programs.

Additional partnerships