Hello Jan, Delores, Jennifer, Rob, Cindy, Susan, Britt and Molly,
I hope your operations have had a productive spring! We are wrapping up our spring semester and thinking on all things summer. I wanted to update you on a few things, ask if you would give your opinion on a couple of other items, and offer possibly recommendations for a couple of positions.
*We are starting our Culinary and Hospitality Entrepreneurship AAS degree in the fall semester. Thank you for your support for it. It will be a good degree for our many students that want to start their own small business operations. To this end, we are adding a Permits & Licensing class in the spring. If you know of an industry professional that has a small business such as a coffee shop, a restaurant, a food truck, a catering operation or similar, let me know and I'll reach out to them to see if they might want to teach a class. The will need to have a degree in Culinary / Hospitality / Tourism, as it is required of all our instructors.
*I am also looking for an adjunct instructor to teach our Front Office class this fall semester. Again, they would need to have a Hospitality degree, either a 4-year degree or a 2-year degree with 3 yrs of experience. If you know hotel associates that might be interested, let me know.
*We've added the Viticulture course for this summer, and it is already full at 18 students.
*We had a very successful Career Fair this spring, with 45 booths for students to visit. Once we can get the students there, they are very appreciative of the opportunity.
*Joe Bolash and the AH&LA Education Committee did a wonderful job of hosting students that wanted to apply to the Mentor program. Four students completed the Mentorship with Joe, Denise Eisman, and Britt Udemi offering to mentor.
*All of our AAS degrees require an Internship class. In addition to attending the class, we ask that students work 240 hours or more in a job or internship that covers three different areas of an operation. (For example, a month at the Front Desk, a month in Housekeeping and a month in Banquets or Sales, or if a meeting planner- the ability to work the function, work with the clients, and perhaps work with the CRM system). The internships or """"jobs"""" can be paid or unpaid. If you have internship opportunities at your location, please let us know and we'll add it to the Internship Opportunities list that we send out.
*We're on track to move the department to the Highland Learning Center for fall, 2020.
*We currently have 15 industry professionals teaching as adjuncts and one full-time position (myself). We offer about 18 distinct industry classes per semester.
Now I have a couple of requests. Will you reply to these thoughts?
*I would like to run our Sustainable Tourism class next summer as a 5-week course, with 2 1/2 weeks being in the classroom (not every day, just several meet ups) and 2 1/2 weeks in Costa Rica. I am thinking of having students participate in eco-tours and helping on a sustainable farm. We can also meet up with the sustainability offices in San Jose to hear from them on how they manage to get the major stakeholders in the country on-board to create one of the most sustainable travel locations. Question: Do you think this is a good idea/good travel location? And do you think it is appropriate to credit other degrees and certificates (event planning, hotel students) with the course as a restrictive elective, as it could apply broadly to them?
*We are adding a Sabre training class for spring 2020 for our tourism students. I have spoken with several travel agents and they use Sabre to book tickets and travel and feel it is necessary to train on the system. It will also be useful when we move to Highland Learning Center and we have a Travel Consultancy available to the public. Question: Do you have an understanding of the usefulness of Sabre in the travel world?
Thank you for allowing me to reach out and ask for your insights. And again, if you have front office management or a permits & licensing instructor possibility in mind, let me know.
I appreciate your support,
Best, Liz
Liz Hundley, CMP
Interim Department Chair, Programs of Hospitality Mgmt, Meeting & Event Planning, Travel & Tourism
Austin Community College, Eastview Campus
3401 Webberville Road, Austin, TX 78702
stacy.hundley@austincc.edu
(512) 223-5181
www.austincc.edu/hospmgmt