The business of travel and tourism: Hospitality and Culinary Arts

In this episode, we will find out the details of the Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management program and the Culinary Arts program. 

 

Achieve More with Athens Tech, the official podcast of Athens Technical College.

A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia. Equal Opportunity Institution.

 

S1: Welcome to achieve more with Athens Tech, the official podcast of Athens Technical College. This is where you'll discover how the programs and Athens tech can connect you with in-demand and high paying careers. Today, we're going to look at hotel, restaurant and tourism management and culinary arts.
S2: If you don't know what you want to do with your life but you love people, hospitality is for you.
S3: If you work for the right place, work for the right people, you will make you make a lot of money.
S4: You can always get a job anywhere as a cook or even a head chef, or even create your own bakery or your own restaurant. And so it will never hurt you to have that experience.
S1: People will forget what you said, forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. Maya Angelou. In today's episode, we're going to talk to a graduate of the hotel, restaurant and tourism management program.
S3: My name's Aaron Mubarak. I am currently assistant manager of food and beverage operations at the Ritz-Carlton, Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia.
S1: We'll talk to a culinary arts student.
S4: I'm Morgan Pulse. I'm a mother of two. I've been married for. We'll see. We're going on seven years now. I'm currently going to Athens, Turkey. I started out as an accounting major. I've finished all my Céline classes and then switched over to the Culinary and Baking Program, and I am currently in that at the moment. And I'm possibly throwing the idea round of graduating this year with the accounting and then coming back to finish up the culinary and then eventually starting my own bakery.
S1: And we'll hear a story of triumph, of overcoming adversity to achieve a lot more.
S2: I come from a background where I grew up on the west side of Chicago, and so I didn't know if I would make it. And when I say I'd make make it. It was pretty violent back then in the eighties.
S1: Batman is very important to these programs. I'll let him introduce himself.
S2: My name is Dr. Alfonzo Boyd. I'm the program chair for Culinary Arts, as well as hotel, restaurant and tourism management. And if you put both of those together, I cover anything in hospitality, so that could be anywhere from owning your own business. You could own your own travel agency, your own restaurant. You can work in these empty seat entities. It could be hotels, convention and visitors bureaus as well as event planning. So anything dealing with putting on events for the general public, I, I would say that we're covered, you know, so anything that's disposable income that people love to do so and sometimes people forget what those are, even sports arenas like, it's endless because people love having a good time, right? So when we cover all those, there is I come from a background where I grew up on the west side of Chicago, and so I didn't know if I would make it. And when I say I'd make make it, it was pretty violent back then in the eighties. So for a young black person to like graduate from sixth grade, eighth grade or high school was was pretty slim because crime was just so bad. It was is more than likely you were going to join a gang or end up dead somewhere. And so for me to make it out of that and achieve everything I've done in my life, I look for more individuals like me or anyone who just wants to do more with their lives. And I get a lot of students who are just like by time they come to me, they're just kind of like lost and beaten down. And I encourage them that they can achieve more. You can earn your degree. You can have a better life. You know, I have one student graduate, and now she works for a pretty prestigious hotel making pretty good money. You know, she never thought that she would make them, you know, for her life. And so I just want to be able to give people make their dream a reality. That's what I want to do.
S1: We'll hear more from Dr. Bui about his background, qualifications and his journey in a bit. But first, that student he just mentioned, that's Aaron.
S3: My name is Aaron Brock. I am currently Assistant Manager of food and beverage operations at the Ritz Carlton, Reynolds Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia. I graduated from Athens Tech in May and started my job two weeks later. Already I. I had a job before I left, thanks to my professor. And that's about it. Been working really hard ever since. I learned a lot about the industry, perfecting my craft and just focusing on growing my career. I'm a nonexempt manager, so I have a salary, but if I work outside the means of that sala