Integration of industry and education better prepares students for success and makes a school essential in the eyes of all stakeholders. Good news is that opportunities for your program to partner with your local business community are endless.

By Paul Sorgule, MS, AAC

Sometimes programs tend to underestimate the breadth of resources and educational talent at their disposal. We look to our full- and part-time faculty as the primary resource and strength of a program, as one would assume.

However, those program administrators who see the potential to draw the hospitality community into the folds of their faculty resources can build a truly dynamic curriculum to rival the largest and finest colleges. Creating a stage for Partners in Education allows business leaders to understand how they might assist in building extraordinary opportunities for young people aspiring to a career in hospitality.

We all understand how this might occur through internships and externships, giving students the ability to apply the hands-on skills they are developing in a campus program, but few programs understand that this “partnership” can extend to all academic courses, as well. Hands-on can apply to every part of your curriculum. Considering that most students enrolled in culinary programs are tactile learners, this application approach can result in a more-engaged student, enhanced relationships with outside stakeholders in your program, and a truly balanced graduate.

Students, parents and accrediting agencies are collectively holding college administrators and faculty members to a different standard. Everyone seems to want measureable, and visible, outcomes that make a difference in a student’s professional life. Stakeholders are looking for value.

New research from the National Restaurant Association shows a substantial number of operators are implementing sustainability best practices into their businesses.

A recent survey of 1,000 full-service and quick-service operators by the National Restaurant Association (NRA) found that nearly three quarters of operators recycled used fryer oil, fats and grease. More than six in 10 recycled their cardboard and paper, used compact fluorescent lighting and bought products made of recycled materials. About three in 10 installed faucet aerators to conserve water.

“More operators are looking at ways to increase efficiency—environmentally and fiscally,” said Scott DeFife, executive vice president, Policy and Government Affairs, for the NRA. “Restaurateurs today know a lot more about how sustainability can reduce utility costs and, in some cases, increase profitability.”

Key findings determined that:

Although some instructors might feel threatened or intimidated by having to adapt to accommodate the needs of an ever-diversifying student body, consider that change can be good, benefit the student and ultimately make teaching and managing the classroom a lot easier.

By Bradley J. Ware, PhD, and C. Lévesque Ware, PhD

The student landscape today is drastically different than in the past. Classes are made up of an increased number of students who have new and unique needs and a variety of views and opinions concerning their role in the classroom and that of the instructor.

More and more students are culturally diverse, have learning disabilities, live with visual and hearing impairments, and require more personal attention. Educators who adapt their teaching methods and strategies to best accommodate these diverse groups will have the greatest degree of success in motivating students to learn.

Culturally Diverse Students
There are many outside forces that can influence the overall success of foreign and multicultural students. Behaviors that are culturally linked such as a lack of eye contact, non-participatory behavior, a disregard for personal space, or the failure to respond to questions might be misconstrued by instructors as poor preparation or a lack of interest. Students who are first-generation college students might experience the pressure to succeed in an environment with which they are not familiar. They may at times feel like outcasts and honestly believe that they do not belong or fit into the college scheme of things. Students who have English as a second language also have the added burden of limited comprehension and might find it difficult to adjust to the academic rigor that college demands.

A popular Louisiana-style restaurant goes from roadside stand to Cajun cuisine sensation.

True tastes of the bayou are surfacing throughout the South, and Cajun Steamer Bar & Grill is happy to take the blame.

For years, co-founder Jeff Thompson has been pouring his Cajun heart and soul into the growing chain of restaurants, but he admits that it all began from his own selfish interest.

When Thompson moved to Birmingham from Louisiana in the early 1990s, his first order of business was to assess the local dining scene. That’s when he discovered a glaring void that made it virtually impossible for him to call Alabama home.

“There was no Cajun food at all, and I just can’t live without my crawfish!” Thompson says, laughing through his thick Louisiana drawl. “It was either do something about it or go home. This was a deal-killer.”

Thompson took matters into his own hands, setting up a modest roadside stand and selling crawfish from the back of a trailer hooked up to his truck. It was anything but fancy, but his winning formula of fresh seafood sold at reasonable prices proved that the market was ready for authentic Cajun cuisine.

“It was pretty simple—just a couple of tables and some umbrellas—but you wouldn’t believe how excited people here got over it,” Thompson says. “It was as if I had introduced them to a whole new culture, like they’d never had crawfish before—not the fresh kind, anyway. That little stand still brings back fond memories for me; it still brings a smile to my face when I think about all the people I met. That’s when I could start calling Birmingham home.”

In this final of three installments focusing on employing an effective interaction strategy to increase loyalty and sales in your program’s student-run foodservice outlets, influencing four customer perceptions—“Fresh,” “Trust,” “Mystery” and “Ownership”—is key to success.

By Renee Zonka, RD, CEC, CHE, MBA

Last month, I wrote about how to teach the new “interaction economy” in the classroom and implement it in your program’s foodservice outlets while promoting the benefits of doing both. In this final segment of my three-part focus, I will touch on achieving desirable perceptions among foodservice customers—the successful eliciting of which can create value to the customer by enhancing his or her loyalty to your program’s operations and branding.

The concept of a new interaction economy replacing the “experience economy” was introduced in 2008 by InterAction Metrics, an Oregon-based company specializing in customer-experience optimization and customer-interaction management. Some of the following insights and advice come from the white paper published by that company, while most is the result of our experience in teaching the main tenets of the interaction economy in the School of Culinary Arts at Kendall College. Our goal is to arm students with the training and know-how to deliver unparalleled customer service so that they may excel in their foodservice careers.