Everyone knows that New York features some of the largest luxury hotels in the world, but understanding how they operate is a mystery to most.
Well, Susan Wagner High School students involved in the school’s Academy of Hospitality and Tourism program got a behind-the-scenes look at one of the city’s largest hotels, the New York Marriott, in downtown Brooklyn, near the Brooklyn Bridge, and it was an eye-opener indeed.
“When students saw the Presidential Suite they were just fascinated,” teacher Rachael Monaco said. “What also amazed them is that despite how huge the suite is, there’s a limit of two people that can stay there. It only has one master bedroom.”
Those who made the visit are part of a program designed to teach students about the hospitality industry, in addition to providing them with a general education and high school diploma. The idea is to give teens a head start in learning about a particular industry while still in high school in the hopes that this will motivate them to stay in school and complete their education.
According to Ms. Monaco, one of the biggest impressions the visit made on the students was seeing people working who actually enjoy what they do.
“During the course of their lives, these students have come across many people who really don’t enjoy their jobs and look at them as just jobs. When the students were at the hotel they were able to see and experience the passion that the employees had in building a wonderful experience for their guests. It was quite an eye-opener,” she said.
Ms. Monaco said several of her students have expressed an interest in going into the hospitality industry once they graduate high school and received a college degree. She noted that this particular job-shadowing event gave the students a chance to visit many of the departments necessary to run a hotel and to observe the skills needed to work in each of them.
Susan Wagner’s Academy of Hospitality and Tourism is sponsored by the National Academy Foundation (NAF), a network of career-themed academies that give high-school students access to work-based learning experiences and relationships with business professionals.
NAF academies focus on one of five career themes: finance, hospitality and tourism, information technology, engineering, and health sciences. More than 4,600 professionals volunteer in classrooms, act as mentors, engage NAF students in paid internships, and serve on local advisory boards across the country. Last year 62,000 students attended NAF programs in more than 500 high schools, and 97 percent of the seniors involved graduated on time.