Volume 12, Number 3, 2004
A group of CHEP students who will travel to Athens this summer to help feed more than 15,000 Olympic athletes, coaches and staff members will gain on-the-job experience at an internationally celebrated event in an exotic location 5,000 miles from home.
The dozen or so students from the Department of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management (HRIM) will work with Aramark, whose chefs and nutritionists are developing a "World Menu" to meet the requirements of athletes from 200 countries, with different ethnic and religious backgrounds and varying nutritional needs. With more than 1,500 different menu items available 24 hours a day in the Olympic Village, the students will have their work cut out for them, according to Fred DeMicco, Aramark Chair in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at UD.
Still, despite the high profile of the Olympic Games and the challenges of working in food service there, DeMicco says the experience in Athens will be fundamentally familiar to HRIM students, who are accustomed to participating in a variety of internships and other work.
"Our students must have 800 hours of work experience before graduation, with 100 of those hours in service learning or 'humanitarian hospitality' with a community agency such as the Food Bank or Meals on Wheels," DeMicco says. "But, between summer jobs and part-time jobs during the school year, along with the structured internships that are available, they have lots of opportunities. I've never known one of our students to have any problem reaching that 800-hour requirement."
Students often take part in formal internships with such employers as the Marriott hotel chain, Aramark food-service company, Darden Restaurants, Walt Disney Co. and the Biltmore resort, although many other companies offer such opportunities as well. In a structured internship, students learn about the company and its operations while either working in one job or rotating among various positions. Most full-time internships are available during the summer, which DeMicco says benefits both parties.
"In most cases, summer is the busy season in the hospitality industry," he says. "So, students are filling jobs that their employers need to fill, and the students get a chance to see what the company is like. It's a two-way street." Employers also use internships and summer jobs to evaluate the student workers' potential as permanent employees.
Joanie Baczewski, CHEP '05, is one of many HRIM students who seek out a variety of on-the-job experiences. She has held summer jobs with a small restaurant and catering company in Massachusetts, worked part time during the school year as a banquet server in a Delaware restaurant and currently is a marketing assistant at the Hotel du Pont in Wilmington.
"I definitely think working is a very important part of the HRIM program," Baczewski says. "You learn so much so fast when you are on the job, actually doing it."
A previous Hotel du Pont marketing intern, Paul Fisher, CHEP '05, also has had summer jobs at a spa in New York and, as a Marriott summer intern, at a time-share resort in Hilton Head, S.C.
"All my work experiences were helpful in letting me apply what I learned in the classroom to the real world," Fisher says.
Marytheresa Pupa, CHEP '04, has interned for Disney, spending a semester working at a restaurant in the Magic Kingdom, and for the Biltmore estate in Asheville, N.C., where she says she got a firsthand look at the different types of restaurants located there.
"I think all my previous experience will help me in my career, because a slow day at Disney is a busy day for a normal business," she says.
At Biltmore, interns rotate to jobs in the estate's three restaurants and also learn how the estate manages its own vineyard, 10-acre vegetable garden and numerous special events for its group tour and travel business, according to Tom Ruff, the resort's executive vice president.
"It's a nice, well-rounded opportunity for students," he says. "It's also a golden opportunity for us to take a look at them in terms of future employment."
In addition to allowing students to apply what they've learned in class, internships and work experiences sometimes expose them to unexpected situations, DeMicco says. He cites the example of Ryan Eddy, CHEP '04, who has been working for Marriott in various capacities since his freshman year.
Eddy was an intern at the Marriott Marquis in New York last summer when a power outage struck the northeastern United States. As a Washington Post article about the blackout noted, he "wowed his co-workers" by volunteering repeatedly to climb to the 45th floor on such errands as escorting guests from the building and retrieving medicines and other essentials from rooms.
"There are things you can't learn in a classroom, especially in this industry," Eddy says.