Category Archives: Hospitality and Tourism Management

Emeritus and Retired Faculty lunch with current CASA affiliates

The College of Applied Sciences and Arts hosted its annual Emeritus and Retired Faculty Luncheon Oct. 29, at Flames Eatery and Banquet.
Emeritus and Retired

Faculty were invited to join Assistant Chair of Kinesiology Shirley Reekie and Associate Dean Greg Payne for a tour of some of the newly completed construction on campus. About a half dozen faculty members participated in the tour of the newly renovated Yoshihiro Uchida Hall and the new Student Union.

“This is one of our favorite events to host each year because it gives us a chance to catch you up on what has been going on in CASA and around campus and also for us to hear what you’ve done this past year,” said Interim Dean Alice Hines in her welcome.

The highlight of the program included three College of Applied Sciences and Arts students who attended summer study abroad programs who shared how the experience left a strong impression on them. The students speakers included Aly Mauro, an Occupational Therapy student, Mia Gonzalez, a Journalism and Mass Communications student and Michael Celso, a Social Work student. The students each received the Helen L. Stevens Faculty-Led Program Scholarship, helping to off-set $500 of the cost of the summer programs. The College is currently working to develop more scholarships to support study abroad opportunities for students.

Emeritus and retired faculty from seven CASA departments, including some that have merged with other departments, attended the luncheon with current faculty from nine of the departments offering updates on their activities. The attendees included a former dean and emeritus faculty member, Robert Moore, who taught in the Division of Technology. Moore, who is in his mid-90s, said he recalled hiring Helen Ross Mico, a retired Health Science professor in attendance, and Lee Walton, a retired kinesiology professor in attendance.

Dwight Bentel Hall closed for construction; students to meet in SU ballrooms

Due to ongoing construction, classes scheduled in Dwight Bentel Hall on Monday, Aug. 25 and Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014 have been relocated to the Student Union, Ballrooms A and B. Students can check in with their faculty at tables labeled with their classroom number and instructor. The ballroom in the new student union is upstairs and can be accessed by entering the Student Union through the Seventh Street entrance. Signs will be posted to direct faculty and students to the ballrooms.

Interim Dean Alice Hines has directed faculty to go to the Student Union ballroom at their scheduled class time to meet with their students. Faculty members will be using the first meeting with their classes to:

1.  Have students on roster check in to claim their seat in the class.

2.     Take waitlist names if seats will or may be available

3.     Provide instructions for class reading or other assignments.

4.     Be prepared to send roster messages to students to notify them of any changes or updates.

5.     If using Canvas, make assignments and instructions available there.

Academic Scheduling will be looking for alternative locations for classes to meet after the first two days of instruction. They will notify faculty and students as soon as locations have been assigned.

CASA Dean’s Office staff have posted signs to notify faculty and staff of the relocation of classes to the Ballroom. They will be available at DBH and in the new Ballroom to redirect students and faculty.

SJSU to honor 3,500+ at Honors Convocation

On April 25, 2014, more than 3,500 San José State University students will be recognized for high academic performance at the 2014 Honors Convocation. Students who have maintained a 3.65 GPA or higher for two contiguous semesters of the last three semesters will be recognized as Dean’s Scholars while students with a 4.0 GPA will be recognized as President’s Scholars.

In the College of Applied Sciences and Arts, more than 900 students will receive certificates of recognition for their achievement, including students in Health Science and Recreation, Hospitality Management, Journalism and Mass communications, Justice Studies, Kinesiology, Nursing, Nutrition, Food Science and Packaging, Occupational Therapy and Social Work. The keynote speaker at the event this year will be Dr. Winifred Schultz-Krohn, an occupational therapy professor, who received the Outstanding Professor Award this year.

The Provost office collected stories from some of this year’s honorees including three students from the Valley Foundation School of Nursing and the kinesiology department. To read the featured stories from College of Applied Sciences and Arts students, along with others, visit http://www.sjsu.edu/provost/events/honors/featured/index.html.

Student profile: Nutrition student leads Chalets at Pro-Am

Rebecca Mockabee is the first to admit she doesn’t know all the ins and outs of golf. But for the second year in a row she will be spending up to 12 hours a day at the AT&T National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. Mockabee is one of about 34 students who headed to Monterey County Feb. 3 as part of a unique partnership between San José State University and Pebble Beach.

The Special Event Management Program started in 2006 as a way to give students hands-on, intensive training and to provide dozens of managers for the week-long golf tournament. The students have been undergoing management training with staff members from Pebble Beach since the start of January. They are spending the week of the Pro-Am from sun up to sun down providing concessions to spectators of as well as the corporate CEOs and others who spend time in the chalets and sky boxes along the course.

Mockabee is a senior in Nutritional Food Science who first participated in the Special Event Management program at SJSU in 2013. The program is run through the Hospitality and Tourism Management program in the College of Applied Sciences and Arts, but the students involved in the program come from various backgrounds including hospitality, business, communications and sometimes nutrition.

“It really builds a bridge between being a student and being in the work place,” said Mockabee, of the program.

This year she will serve as director of Chalets during the golf tournament that draws up to 35,000 visitors in the course of the week, in addition to celebrities and golfers.

“We don’t get to interact too much,” she said, of the golfers and celebrities.

Most of her day will be spent in the chalets, catering to CEO and business professionals.

Heading into the tournament, Mockabee said she was filled with excitement.

“Being there is almost like my Disneyland,” she said. “Everyone is smiling and you are part of a community. Everything around Pebble Beach is beautiful.”

This year, the students used iPads purchased with a grant from the College of Applied Sciences and Arts Dean’s Office that streamlined the training process. In the past, Pebble Beach staff members photocopied training manuals of up to 900 pages for 40 people. This year the manuals are in a digital format that can be accessed on the iPads.

Mockabee said she was looking forward to having the iPad on the course this year, rather than carrying around the huge binders.

Like many of the students who have participated in the Pro-Am program, Mockabee said she was invited back to help with the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival as well as the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Mockabee said her own confidence grew when she completed the program last year. Since then, she took a job as a hostess at Mimi’s Café in Gilroy. Just recently she said she was promoted to assistant manager.

“(The program) can help you see what kind of manager you want to be,” Mockabee said.

Pebble Beach makes professionals of Hospitality students

While most San José State University students were still enjoying their winter break, a group of 34 students have been involved in intense training in preparation for a week-long internship at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February. To watch a video of the training, click SJSU SEMT 2014 Training.

From Jan 8-11, 30 students  and four student leaders attended all-day training where they learned the ins and outs of how to offer premiere service to elite clients, including the celebrities, business executives and others who attend the annual golf tournament. The students have three more all-day Saturday training sessions. Then they will be required to stay near Pebble Beach from Feb. 3-9, where they will work 12 hours day in concessions, hospitality tents called chalets and skyboxes along the course during the tournament.

Kristen Ridout, who participated in the event last year and is serving as the student coordinator this year, said the hardest part for her was knowing how to be professional, “not just acting professional, but even learning what language to use and body language.”

She said she was a little intimidated at first working in a skybox along the 18-hole course with corporate clients, noting that she met more than one CEO.

“It was a little intimidating,” she said. “I was young.”

Since 2006, the College of Applied Sciences and Arts Hospitality and Tourism Management program has partnered with the premiere Central Coast resort to create a Special Event Management Team made up of students such as Ridout. This year’s team includes mainly Hospitality and Tourism Management students, but also some kinesiology and communications students. The students serve as event managers during the event.

This year, the students used iPads purchased with a grant from the College of Applied Sciences and Arts Dean’s Office that streamlined the training process. In the past, Pebble Beach staff members photocopied training manuals of up to 900 pages for 40 people. This year the manuals are in a digital format that can be accessed on the iPads.

In addition to the power point presentations by nearly a dozen Pebble Beach staff members on everything from food safety to human resources to hospitality, Rich Larson, an SJSU professor, used each day to teach the students how important details are to event management. Each day the students met in the Boccardo Business Center the students set up the linens, table skirts and created center pieces, with a different look each day. Larson pointed to the blinds in one room and said the attention to detail goes as far as making sure the blinds were all adjusted to the same angle.

Each year, managers from Pebble Beach are actively involved in the training sessions and they select the students for the team. This year, 72 students applied to be part of the program. From that pool, Beat Giger, the director of special events and corporate chef at Pebble Beach Resorts, said he and his staff aimed to select the students who would be the best fit for the event.

“We are looking for a certain personality,” he said. “They have to be energetic and outgoing. They will be working with a lot of older people who have been out there a long time. We need to pump them up.”

Giger described the partnership as a “win-win-win.”

“We would not be able to find locally 30 managers who would be willing to go through the training,” he said, of the 56 hours of training the students undergo.

The students who intern at the winter golf tournament often have the opportunity to return to Pebble Beach to work at the Pebble Beach Food and Wine Festival as well as the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Giger said the best students are often hired full-time when they graduate from SJSU, noting that about 15 current employees participated in the program.

Rich Larson, an SJSU professor, said many students who have completed the program find listing it on their resume gives them a leg up in job searches. While the training and the week at the golf tournament are intense, he said most students find it to be rewarding.

“They come in nervous and they leave confident,” he said of the training. “They get to the tournament and they are nervous again, but they leave confident.”

He noted other former students who graduated and have gone on to work with the 49ers football team, the A’s baseball team and Aramark.

“It’s our good fortune to be in proximity to such a well-known resort and golf course,” Larson said.