By Erica Aldridge
The college’s hospitality management program and the Center for Sustainability have come together to develop a new internship program for hospitality students. With this internship, students will be trained to make more environmentally conscious choices when working in a hotel or restaurant. Ryan Wing, the senior sustainability analyst at the college, explains the benefits the internship gives to the students and the Kansas City area.
“Employers are expecting students to have internship experience,” Wing said. “So this is a way to accomplish the Center’s goals by creating more green jobs while also giving [students] the real world experience.”
After a student is paired with a local company, they will work together to help incorporate sustainable practices into the company’s normal procedures. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including saving energy and water, reducing waste and using environmentally friendly cleaners and chemicals.
For the spring 2012 semester, the only student involved with this internship program is Yvette Hirang. But as time goes on, faculty that put together the program hope to see more students and businesses involved.
“At this point we are going to start off with restaurants,” said Jay Antle, executive director of the Center for Sustainability. “If the program is successful we would be able to find other dollars to include other restaurants and hotels.”
According to Hirang, she will be helping the restaurant apply environmentally friendly practices for their Green Restaurant Association Accreditation. Hirang knew the internship was something she wanted to do as soon as she learned of it.
“I have always been interested in learning how to apply sustainable and green practices in the food industry,” said Hirang. “When I read about the grant, I immediately contacted [Kim] Criner and told her I am very much interested in doing the internship.”
In order to fund this new internship, the Mid America Regional Council awarded the college with a $63,700 grant. According to Wing, the participating businesses will receive up to $4,000 to implement the new practices brought in by the students.
Overall the idea has been very supported by numerous local restaurants. The program hopes to expand to hotels and restaurants across the metro area as time goes on.
Contact Erica Aldridge, Copy Editor at ealdridg@stumail.jccc.edu.