Hands flew up around Rob Gillette’s third-grade classroom Tuesday at Haven Elementary School as students eagerly posed questions, and sometimes elaborate scenarios, on the hospitality and tourism industry.
One student asked whether the employees of a hotel stay at the hotel all night, another asked what the pay was like and someone else asked what would happen if a guest found out his or her room was messy, or worse, on fire.
Michael Owens and Molly Swagler of the Tourism Leadership Council, a trade organization that promotes the hospitality industry, were on hand to answer all of these questions as well as provide information on what sorts of jobs make up Savannah’s bustling tourism sector.
Tuesday’s program at Haven Elementary is part of a new state-mandated course of study for K-12 classrooms called the College and Career Ready Performance Index, or CCRPI. Each grade is assigned a specific group of industries to learn about and must participate in career activities that relate to the 16 designated pathways.
For Grades 1 and 2, this includes areas such as agriculture and food, transportation, distribution and logistics, law, public safely, arts, health science, education and more.
Third graders, meanwhile, are exposed to career tracks in hospitality and tourism, human services and energy.
Lila Black, Haven’s guidance counselor, said the program helps students in their future job exploration and educational planning.
“Hopefully, when student now reach middle school and high school, they will be more prepared to have some dialogue with their teachers and counselors about careers that interest them,” said Black.
Owens, president of the Tourism Leadership Council, said he was impressed by the questions posed to him.
“We’re giving them a basic overview of the industry, and there’s a lot of different jobs and career paths, and at the end, during the Q and A session, those are some of the hardest questions I’ve been asked,” said Owens. “They come up with complex scenarios, and they want to know how I or someone in the industry would solve it.”
On one slide, Swagler showed different jobs in the restaurant sector, both fine dining and casual, pausing on a picture of Marquelle Jones, the popular greeter and host at the Olde Pink House.
“My daddy works at the Olde Pink House,” said third-grader Gerald Frazier. “And he said they make good money.”
Other students chimed in with their experiences in hotels, vacations in Florida and favorite foods.
After the presentation, Swagler went around and asked the students what they wanted to be, a few responded “doctor,” others “lawyer,” “wrestler” and “soldier.” At least two students, however, answered “chef.”
“So we have recruited a couple of you,” said Swagler. “If you like people and you like to smile, think about tourism and hospitality.”