The United School of Lisbon – the culmination of a dream

Text: Chris Graeme; Photos: ULIS

In all the years I have known education and hotels entrepreneur Chitra Stern I had never seen her look so visibly moved as he was at the unveiling of a brand new sports hall, dance studio and theatre at the United Lisbon International School on Friday.

And you knew it wasn’t just about these three milestone state-of-the-art facilities; it was the culmination of seven years of hard work, millions of euros of investment, the back and forth with architects, urban planners, landscapers and the Lisbon Municipal Council which has been supportive of the audacious project from the start.

Because ULIS is not just another international school to join the ranks of so many others that have mushroomed in the Greater Lisbon Metropolitan Area over the past 10 years. it is a project that has changed and is continuing to change an entire community, one that has regenerated a once run down part of East Lisbon, and has continued the overall urban regeneration of that area which began with the Expo project of the last decade of the 20th century.

I recall walking along the ghostly corridors and being shown the empty rooms of the abandoned Higher Institute of Economic and Social Sciences (ISCEF) – it later became part of the University of Lisbon’s Faculty of Economics (ISEG) – by Chitra and Roman Stern armed with the blueprints and vision of what they dreamed to create. It looked daunting at the time, but now the visionary couple are well on the way to creating their dream of an economically sustainable world-class eduction hub, now with around 650 pupils from 55 nationalities.

At at time when the world is moving in a distinctly worrying and populist direction, with paranoias built around immigration, nationality, race and a ‘them and us’ discourse, the school’s choir, comprising pupils from all over the world, added to that palpable emotion, providing a coherent manifestation of humanity. That we are all from somewhere and everywhere, and that what truly unites us as human beings are empathy, dreams and basic human emotions and experiences.

The inauguration started with a few words from ULIS director Martin Harris, a distinguished educator appointed in 2024 to lead the school’s growth, with prior experience as Headmaster of UK schools and involvement with ULIS since its founding.

“Oh boy! What a difference it makes to have amazing facilities. The words ‘world class’ are probably a bit overused, but I can truly say that this is an amazing building and we have world-class facilities”, he said.

“Our job as educators is to inspire all of the children in this school, all of the students to believe they can achieve anything and that anything is possible. And when you have an environment and facilities like these, then the opportunities are limitless,” he added, thanking Chitra and Roman Stern, whose “vision, energy, and drive to complete this project have got us where we are today”.

Chitra Stern admitted “it’s a very emotional day for Roman and myself. Building the school has been a labor of love, and we have worked hard since 2017 to put various pieces of real estate together, build a team, and open a school after going through the process of real estate development licensing, construction, opening through COVID, building the school up, inviting the Dukes Education Group to join us at the end of 2022, and continue to develop and build the education hub that you see around us”.

“The Edu-Hub of Lisbon is conceived as a very innovative campus for education for the future. Our vision for the school, since the very beginning, has been built on five pillars: global citizenship, technology, entrepreneurship, the arts, and sports – all very important for the future of education, and even more so today. Now, all these pillars of the vision require spaces as well and definitely requires people at the end, but it’s a little bit of ‘build it and they will come philosophy’”, Chitra explained.

This was the Sterns’ dream – an investment of over €100 million including the banks and loans on a project in the middle of Lisbon “contributing to what is happening in the city in a positive way, having a socioeconomic impact, and that’s how we like to do all our projects”, said the entrepreneur behind the Elegant Group of Martinhal hotels and apart hotels in Portugal.

The Mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas thanked the Sterns by remembering “Sometimes politicians don’t thank entrepreneurs, but you are the ones that invest, create jobs, and change lives, and you and Roman have invested so much in Lisbon.”