Welcome to the Hospitality and Tourism Management virtual session in the College of Business. My name is Dr. Jan Jones, and I'm the Program Coordinator for Hospitality and Tourism Management. Today, I'd like to highlight what I think are the top five reasons you should choose the Hospitality and Tourism Management program here at the University of New Haven.
Number one, most people don't know that our program is one of the oldest programs in this state. This long-standing relationship with regional businesses means that people come to us to look for talented employees. In addition to this, we have an incredibly strong alumni network dedicated to help our students succeed.
Our program's reputation provides students with a variety of opportunities to network as well. Each semester, our students visit a variety of businesses to meet with industry executives, and experience behind-the-scenes tours. While our program might be the oldest in the state, our curriculum was recently updated to reflect changes in industry and recent demand. Our new program offers three concentration options within the Hospitality major, the first Event and Tourism Management, the second Hotel and Resort Management, and the third a General Concentration. The General Concentration it says is designed with maximum flexibility and electives to allow students to choose a minor from another discipline in the College of Business, such as Marketing, Management or Data Analytics. It can also better accommodate transfer students who already have culinary and or hospitality credits.
Number two, our strong business core and fast-track opportunities. Our HTM program prides itself on its strong business core and the opportunity to participate in the Fast Track program. Above lists the classes that all of our students take regardless of what concentration they are in. We believe our students need to balance a strong HTM core with business skills required to succeed in any industry.
Number three [is] access to the School of Business high-impact opportunities. At the University of New Haven, we pride ourselves on providing a variety of high-impact opportunities for students. There are several opportunities to learn and practice entrepreneurship skills, work with local industries to solve current problems, and design events for local hospitality businesses. Each year, we bring our students to New York City to participate in the hotel experience as a way to introduce the vastness of these fields. This past semester, we also visited the United Nations to explore Sustainable Development Goals, which had the greatest impact on our industries today. In our Convention and Meeting Planning class last semester, students coordinated a human trafficking training for over 60 industry professionals. Our capstone class traditionally designs an event where students raise money for a charity. Each student creates an event and competes in a pitch competition for their event to be chosen. The charity we raised the money for this past year was called "Puffs for Patriots."
Number four, [is] work experience opportunities. It's our goal to connect students to different industries and potential careers beginning and their first semester. In our program, we require 390 experiential learning hours. All of our students must complete one entry-level fieldwork experience, one management-level fieldwork experience and a career-related internship at the end of their degree. Most of our students complete their fieldwork two experience in our Hazelnut Cafe which is a 100% run student cafe on campus. They are required to run all aspects of the cafe including purchasing food, designing the menu, staffing, the cafe, and training. In addition, we have a full-service kitchen and dining area called Jeffrey's Fusion. With a chef on staff, we offer a wide variety of events, culinary courses, and beverage management classes in this space
Number five study abroad. Last but not least, we encourage all of our students to participate in at least one study-abroad experience. Each summer our HTM program brings students to stay at our Prato, Italy campus for one full month. During this class, we explore iconic hospitality and tourism industries in Venice, Rome, and Florence and explore upcoming trends in travel. Students are also encouraged to study abroad for a whole semester-long program. The following are just a few pictures from our class last summer in Italy.
These are my top five reasons for joining the Hospitality and Tourism program here at the University of New Haven. Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions you might have. Best of luck and we hope you choose our program as your final destination.