BIO

I am a senior and will be graduating spring 2025. I’m from Roanoke, VA. I’ve lived there the majority of my life so I’ve always been aware of VT.

Why did you choose to study HTM?

I chose HTM because I was in culinary school and didn’t love actually working in a kitchen but I still liked the overall hospitality industry and had really enjoyed the intro to hospitality class I had taken.

Why Virginia Tech?

In addition to being in-state, from my research Virginia Tech had a great HTM program that was nationally recognized so I chose VT over the other in state programs.

What are your plans after graduation?

Hopefully working for a hotel or management company. I would love to at some point in the future work internationally

Why did you choose this career path?

I chose hospitality because I enjoy interacting with diverse people and cultures and also hospitality is a global field and I have always been interested in the idea of working outside of the U.S at some point.

What advice do you have for future students?

Be open and explore more. Hospitality is such a wide field with many options, don’t box yourself into something immediately and explore other things. I was so sure that I wanted nothing to do with F&B but ended up doing my internship in that department and at a casino which I had never even considered before and loved it. I’m still discovering new parts of the industry that I wasn’t aware of before.

If you could change one thing in the hospitality and tourism industry, what would it be and why?

I would love to see more diversity in the upper management roles. It’s definitely been improving over the past several years, and I hope that it continues to do so.

Fun Fact: 

at some point a few years ago I somehow stumbled upon Turkish dramas and can now understand the language ok enough to where I can watch a show without needing subtitles for the most part. It’s also pushed Turkey to the top of the list of countries I want to visit.