Tag Archives: golf

Hospitality students prep for Pro-Am tournament

San José State University Hospitality Management graduate Jennifer Hill is an assistant manager at the The Bench Restaurant, one of many eateries that dot the Pebble Beach Resort property in Carmel. For the last three years, she has come back to SJSU to train students as part of the Special Event Management Team program that will bring 35 students to the resort in February to serve as supervisors at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

As a student in 2010, Hill participated in the internship program.

San Jose State University students enrolled in the Pebble Beach Special Event Management Team internship class play a game that quizzes them on professional language.

San Jose State University students enrolled in the Pebble Beach Special Event Management Team internship class play a game that quizzes them on professional language.

“They really set you up for success,” she said of the week-long internship that requires intense training for the students in the months leading up to the Pro-Am. “They make sure they are right behind you, but they let you make decisions.”

The College of Applied Sciences and Arts Hospitality Management department has had a partnership with Pebble Beach since 2006 that allows 30-35 students a year to work at the golf tournament as interns. Pebble Beach managers and SJSU Professor Rich Larson oversee selection of the students, which includes an application and an interview with a panel of professionals. After being selected, the students participated in an orientation on Dec. 6. By the time the tournament starts, the students will have completed seven full-day training sessions on campus and at Pebble Beach. During the tournament, they will work up to 12 hours a day to keep food and beverage concessions running smoothly Feb. 9-15.

On Jan. 15, during their second day of on-campus training, Hill talked about why she came back as a trainer and what she learned from the program.

“I like their willingness to learn,” she said, “I can share my experience from a different perspective (than the other Pebble Beach trainers.)”

She said when she participated in the program, she had already had internships and had worked on planning weddings.

“I had experience with delegating and management so it wasn’t unfamiliar,” she said. “I think the confidence was the biggest thing (I gained.) Another is polish, professional language and how to problem solve – but the most important was confidence.”

Marissa Giacomo, a current hospitality management major, said she heard about the program shortly after she transferred to SJSU.

“I was interested in the opportunities that came with it,” she said. “It is a good way to get involved in the industry.”

She said during the first days of training they had learned about the history of Pebble Beach.

Adil Charki, a business student, said he had some friends who were in the program in past years.

“They really enjoyed it and said it was rewarding,” he said, noting that the students come from different backgrounds, including different majors on campus.

Dayna Miya, a hospitality and event management student, said she heard about the internship in her second year on campus in a hospitality class. She applied twice to the program before she was accepted this year.

“I didn’t really know what they were looking for,” she said. “But this year I knew the process. I’ve had a lot of experience with events for family and friends, but not with corporate and professional settings.”

SJSU students listening intently to managers from Pebble Beach who providing training for the Special Event Mangement Team who will intern at the AT&T National Pro-am in February.

SJSU students listening intently to managers from Pebble Beach who providing training for the Special Event Mangement Team who will intern at the AT&T National Pro-am in February.

On the second morning of training on Jan. 15, the conversations focused on professionalism for the students who will be tasked with managing Skyboxes and Chalet hospitality rooms for VIP guests along the fairway as well as other on-course food and beverage operations.

During their training sessions on campus, the students met in rooms in the Boccardo Business Center, where they transformed classrooms into a conference room. The students were even critiqued on their set up of the room’s food and beverage tables.

“For breakfast, I walked in and some of the set up was very well done,” said Jeff Wallace, the food and beverage director for Pebble Beach. “But the napkins and silverware – not so much. I noticed it was spaced too far apart.”

He advised that as supervisors, the students should seek out those with experience in table set up from their crew when they are setting up their areas at the golf tournament.

As part of the morning’s training, the students broke into groups and discussed the one most important thing that contributes to a customer’s first impression. The students mentioned such things as having someone to greet clients, cleanliness of the room, noise level, proper signage and directions, the flow of a room and how the outside of a restaurant looks.

Donn Achen, a training and communication manager from Pebble Beach, said it was his second year working with the students.

“It is important they understand how much their customer service skills come into play,” he said. “They need to listen. They will work with a variety of people and circumstances. They need to keep the same standards and values, whether it is a temporary or permanent position.”

Achen said the student interns are a critical part of the success of the tournament each year.

“They get a chance to work in a world-class hospitality spot and get coached by the best in the business,” he said.

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.