Scott Pohl: Summer is an important time of
year for students in the Michigan State University
School of Hospitality Business.
MSU’s Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center
employs from 40 to 100 students at any one
time.
Ja Lisia Melendez: I feel as though I gain
a lot, just for the simple fact that I am
in a hotel, and I’m being able to see different
aspects of the hotel, because as part of your
internships, you have to rotate throughout
different parts of the hotel, so I did that,
and I worked in food and beverage as well.
So, I get to see everything that has to do
with not only just sleeping here, but eating
here as well.
Pohl: Ja Lisia Melendez is planning to pursue
an MBA from Michigan State.
After having done an internship at the Westin
Hotel in downtown Detroit, she’s currently
a hostess at the Kellogg Center’s State
Room restaurant.
Melendez says this job is helping her hone
her people skills. She hopes the people she
encounters feel as though they’d like to
come back, and she enjoys giving people the
impression that students here take their jobs
seriously.
Melendez: We do work hard, and I know I work
hard at what I do, so I would want them to
come back to be with nice people like us,
and to know that we are not taking our experience
for granted.
Kelsey Ley: I actually want to end up with
a dude ranch. I don’t know if you know much
about dude ranches. And, I want to do more
of a special needs focus. So, I’ve been
around horses and animals most of my life,
and thought I’d look more at the business
side instead of coming to school for animals.
Pohl: Senior Kelsey Ley works on the front
desk rotation at the Kellogg Center, with
duties like bellhop and running the telephone
system. It’s her second work experience,
too, having spent time at the Royal Park Hotel
in Rochester.
She’s learning how to handle people in tough
situations, and she says her classroom work
is helping her learn how to apply what she’s
learning during her internships.
Ley: The academic setting, I guess, is more
of theories to apply to what you’re looking
at, and also looking at accounting and things
along those lines, so later on down the road,
you know what you’re looking at instead
of going ‘oh, look at the pretty numbers!’
and they’re all kind of meshing. So, that’s
the nice thing about academic, is you do learn
the little parts of accounting and econ. That
way, you can intertwine it with what your
hospitality is.
Pohl: This summer, MSU’s Hospitality Management
school has a couple hundred students working
at hotels and resorts around the US and in
several other countries. The school estimates
that there are 10,000 graduates of the program
currently working in the hospitality industry.
For WKAR public media, I’m Scott Pohl with
reWorking Michigan.
