reWorking Michigan: Training tomorrow's tourism leaders

By Scott Pohl, WKAR

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Students in the MSU Hospitality Business Management school are working on internships all over the country this summer. | SKIP down to article

It's Memorial Day, the traditional beginning of the summer tourism season. All over Michigan and across the country, people have spent the holiday weekend traveling.

Along the way, visitors at hotels and resorts have probably encountered some young workers, and many of them at this time of year are Michigan State University students.

In this week's ReWorking Michigan report, WKAR's Scott Pohl looks at educating tomorrow's tourism industry leaders.

For THE Hospitality Management School at Michigan State University--yes, they really say it that way--classroom activity slows down over the summer. But for hundreds of their students, the learning doesn't stop.

Instead, they fan out across the country, gaining experience in the field through internships and summer jobs.

The school doesn't just encourage this sort of thing; it requires the completion of two internships in order to earn a degree. The first is spent in entry-level positions, while the second is devoted to jobs with greater responsibility.

Authella Collins Hawks is director of the school's Student and Industry Resource Center, coordinating these internships. She says internships not only prepare the students, but they also offer employers a first look at potential future hires. "And, so," Collins Hawks adds, "that is a good investment for them, because they can pre-screen, if you will, prior to actually offering them an opportunity."

Internships give students a wide variety of experiences. One of the students on an internship this summer is Robby Zahm of Rockford. He's working at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center at MSU. The fifth-year senior has also worked in the hotel operation at Disney World.

Zahm says the wide variety of assignments at the Kellogg Center ranging from manning the front desk to operating the phone system is helping him build a base of experience.

He thinks the degree he'll earn will get him further than a work-your-way-up-from-the-bottom without a formal education path would have. "It shows that you're able to learn things, different management systems, that kind of stuff,"Zahm says.

The Kellogg Center has anywhere from 40 to 100 paid interns working at any one time.

Human Resources director Jill Respecki says the Kellogg Center is where hospitality, and hospitality education, begins. She explains that the Kellogg Center tries to give interns as many tools as possible "to try to build their resumes, so that when they start the interviewing process for their full-time careers," Respecki continues, "they are more marketable than somebody else that may not have worked at a hotel."

A variety of experiences crucial to success

The Candlewood Suites Hotel next to MSU's Henry Conference Center is a smaller operation. There are usually two to four interns working here, but General manager Michele Uhaze says she would employ dozens if she could.

Uhaze chaired the Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association for two years. The 300 association members run operations across the state. She says she tells students attending the MLTA's annual conference that it's important to have worked in every hotel department.

"If you're going to be a successful leader in this industry, you cannot be afraid to work in housekeeping," states Uhaze. "Through your internship, working back of the house, doing banquets at Kellogg on a Saturday night, cleaning 15 rooms, knowing what it's like to work the overnight. You have got to see what every single person in your hotel does. You have to walk the talk, you absolutely have to!"

About 10% of the MSU Hospitality Management school's students are from outside the U.S., and many of them do their internships in other countries. In all, there are 10,000 graduates of the program working in the tourism industry all over the world.