INEA celebrates graduations and its 60th anniversary with the presence of former minister Tejerina

The INEA School of Agricultural Engineering (Valladolid) at Comillas Pontifical University celebrated its 60th anniversary during the graduation ceremony of the last class of 2020-2024. Isabel García Tejerina, former Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Spain in the governments of Mariano Rajoy, acted as the godmother of the new graduates, recalling her participation ten years ago, when she presided over the 50th anniversary ceremony as the highest representative of the Ministry.

For his part, the director, Félix Revilla SJ, reflected on four principles proposed by Pope Francis in the encyclical Evangelii Gaudium for facing life. Four postulates applicable to institutions such as INEA, to teachers and to each person.

On the first principle, "time is greater than space", he stressed how important it is to initiate processes that last and if they are good, more people join in. "We as teachers have to accompany processes so that each person can get the best out of themselves, and that means patience. On the second, "unity prevails over conflict", Revilla spoke of confronting them, resolving them, overcoming them and growing over them, an indispensable transformation to build social friendship. "The reality is more important than the idea", states the third postulate. On the fourth and final principle, "the whole is greater than the part", he invited the recent graduates to reflect on their future, bearing in mind the importance of their decisions, however small they may be, in order to contribute to a better world.

The ceremony, which was attended by Luis Gregorio Holguín, head of MAPFRE Alliances, which has supported INEA in its transformational project, had the first students and the history of the school  in mind thanks to all the speakers, especially the representatives of the Gold and Silver graduating classes, Miguel Rebollo and Ignacio Gómez, respectively. Thus, the ceremony became a meeting between two realities separated by 60 years and a profound transformation of the field: from the tape measure to the laser beam; from compass orientation to GPS guidance and from the image taken from an aeroplane to the constant contact of the satellite.