Special Opportunities in Hospitality

Where’s the best place to eat in Manchester? We think it’s the Hospitality Center Restaurant, right here in the School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Management. Where else can you find fine French, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, Thai, Classical and Mediterranean cuisine in the same place?

Each week, the restaurant showcases a different type of cuisine, from a different part of the world. We’re as likely to offer Finnish mushroom salad, or watermelon gazpacho, as escargot. For a real treat, come when the students are challenged to come up with their own signature dishes.

Of course, the Hospitality Center Restaurant is also the best place to learn about managing the back and front of the house, too. Students hone their skills in all aspects of the culinary profession, from sourcing and preparing gourmet ingredients to assisting customers, acquiring the business experience necessary to make a restaurant a commercial success.

Our students also manage an in-house bakery, Caffé é Dolcé, and provide first-class catering services on campus. (Our president loves hiring them for special campus events.)

A newer feature is the Granite State Guest House, a bed and breakfast for campus visitors that was designed and named by students.

Our students get professional experience off campus, too. Our faculty have a number of industry connections, and that often translates into opportunities for our students. For example, our graduate students consult with local hotels and inns to provide expert advice on marketing and communications, and our interns regularly land positions with the top local and national players in the industry.

Our culinary/baking students and faculty aren’t afraid to put their skills to the test off campus; in fact, they have a hunger for competition. Culinary arts major Robert Jensen came home with the gold and baking artist Thomas Vaillancourt nabbed a bronze in the national SkillsUSA’s competition in 2004. Rebecca Roberts won a silver at the 2005 Boston Food Show, beating out several professional chefs.

Service
The School of Hospitality, Tourism and Culinary Management offers unlimited opportunities for service of all types. Students can act as Granite State Ambassadors, whose volunteers were chosen as “The Very Best Volunteers of New Hampshire” recently. Or they can teach with their faculty members in Operation Frontline, a service program that aims to teach single mothers, recent immigrants, troubled teens, and many others to cook nutritious and delicious meals for themselves on a limited budget. Want to get involved right here in Manchester? Our students regularly volunteer at Kids Café, serving dinner to local children who might not get a nutritious meal otherwise. On a more global level, Dr. Kimberly Monk loves to take students outside their comfort zones – and the country – on sustainable tourism trips to such locations as Guatemala, Costa Rica and Bolivia.

At Southern New Hampshire University, we don’t need gourmet reasons to help others.

International Opportunities
The hospitality industry has tremendous opportunities for students with a yen for travel. Our graduates are professionals all over the world – including Europe, Africa and Asia.

Corey Fletcher, a 2003 graduate, has worked in a five-star restaurant on Cape Cod and at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Mari Ann MacDonnell studied in the Netherlands through SNHU and toured Bolivia for her Sustainable Tourism class.

In short, they go wherever they want—and they don’t have to wait until graduation to do it.