Royal Roads Tourism

BAIHM Students Jeet Jani & Kerry MacDonald receive the award for "best in the region"

Project Change is a province-wide competition open to British Colombian tourism students and hosted by LinkBC, the tourism and hospitality education network. It provides students with the opportunity to become influencers and agents for positive change, which are just some of the characteristics that we associate with leadership today.

Our cohort devised and implemented our Project Change ideas within the capacity of our sustainability class. The guidelines to follow included: identifying a community of 20 people or more, developing and implementing a project that had an environmental or social impact with measurable results. While 7 teams developed projects for marks, only 2 submitted their report, video, or slideshow to the competition’s judges. Prizes were awarded to groups that demonstrated innovation, effectiveness, viability and teamwork. One of Royal Roads University’s groups won the “Best in Region – Vancouver Island” award that was generously donated by BC Hydro. Alyssa, Jeet, Kerry and Adam’s project consisted of removing invasive plant species from the threatened Garry Oak ecosystem at Victoria’s National Historic Site, Fort Rodd Hill. They removed 10,000 Spurge Laurel plants at a park that serves 50,000 visitors annually.

 Two team members were able to travel to Vancouver to attend the awards ceremony for Project Change that took place at the Vancouver Convention Centre on February 2nd. It was an excellent opportunity to network with fellow tourism and hospitality students and discover the nature of other groups’ projects. All submissions were inspiring and brought about positive change. The competition encouraged us to think about our values and what we consider to be important. For some, it may have been essential to help deserving communities in other parts of the world, and for others, it was to promote sustainability within their own educational institutions. Whether the project had a social or environmental impact, one thing is for sure, it motivated everyone to continue to take initiative and generate change. What a great experience for students to be given the chance to participate in Project Change!

On Wednesday January 25, 2012, the current 2011-12 International Hotel Management students headed to Vancouver for the day to attend the 2012 Student Industry Rendezvous Event hosted by LinkBC.

After what seemed like a lifetime trek, we arrived at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver. Faculty advised us to explore the city for an hour to grab lunch and promptly return for a 1:30pm start time.

 As we entered the ballroom that afternoon, you could have almost felt the eagerness in the air – hundreds of students waiting to ask future colleagues and employers “what do I need to get the job I want?”  The opening comments were made by Phil Barnes Regional Vice President, Pacific Northwest & GM Fairmont Hotel and Resorts and the opening key note speech was made by Rick Antonson CEO and President of Tourism Vancouver. The common thread through their speeches was one of passion, perseverance and the thirst for an adventure.

RRU Students take their seats in anticipation of meeting new industry contacts

Once the event started, students had the opportunity to sit at the table of their choice and talk to employers from Fairmont, Hilton, Shangri La and Delta. Most students asked thought provoking questions that made each conversation unique. After about four rounds of “speed networking” the event was concluded by the closing notes from Margaret McCormick Acting Executive Director for Tourism Partnerships and Director for Tourism Product Management at Tourism BC/Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation. Margaret spoke of the importance of networking and following your passion. Though the speeches, all spoke of similar topics, one thing resonated in my head – spend your whole life following your passion and you’ll feel as if you never worked a day in your life.

Dino, Valarie, Haley and Jeet looking very impressive!

After the event ended there was a one hour trade show where students could finish any unfinished conversations and attempt to make those last connections. Though I would have loved to see more employers there, I’m glad Royal Roads had the opportunity to attend this event. Though we are in an International program- it’s nice to know the community of the west coast is here to support us in getting that first foot through the door.

Kate and Tanya man the booth to talk about THM programs at RRU

 As I plan on heading overseas for my internship this summer I am glad I had the opportunity to work on my networking skills and ask questions I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking in a more pressured environment.  Overall, the experience was one that I would recommend for any student in the industry as building a network is important to establish because you never know when you might want to chase a different opportunity in life.

It’s been an exciting time!

Here we are at the end of another year in the School of Tourism and Hospitality at Royal Roads! It’s been an extremely intense and eventful fall term, with our incoming  class in the BA International Hotel Management in a newly redesigned classroom, Margaret Doyle taking on an expanded role for industry liaison and  internship coordination for the whole Faculty of Management, and Geoffrey Bird becoming Dr Geoffrey Bird. Geoff is presently leading a team of our MA students in a Parks Canada project in Quebec- a first for the School. Our diploma program in Jinhua, China, got off to a great start with Dr Nancy Chesworth teaching our first cohort of 85 students, and Adjunct Professor Rod Harris was inducted into the Canadian Tourism Hall of Fame. We’re looking forward to welcoming Rebecca Wilson-Mah who starts with us in January. She will be the program lead for the BA International Hotel Management.

We are presently posting the new BA Global Tourism Management curriculum for provincial review and the on-campus, full-time  MA Tourism Management  has been forwarded for Academic Council review. The Study Group two-year on campus curriculum has been approved and development work on courses starts in the new year. Already we have several Study Group students who have declared their intensions of enrolling in our undergraduate programs. I’ll be going to China and India in February 2012 to build more international programming , and Ted Wykes will be continuing his excellent work across Canada in college recruitment. A big thank you to all our Associate Faculty, who contribute so much to the success of our School, and to our great staff- Tanya Aindow, our Manager, Melody Andersson, MA Tourism program, and Kate Egan, BA Hotel Management program.

Finally- thanks to an outstanding group of BA and MA students and Alumni! You’re why we’re here, and your success makes all of us in the School really proud!

Very best wishes to all for the for the New Year–please stay in touch with us, we love to hear about your travels!

Brian White, Director, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management

It’s been an exciting time!

Here we are at the end of another year in the School of Tourism and Hospitality at Royal Roads! It’s been an extremely intense and eventful fall term, with our incoming  class in the BA International Hotel Management in a newly redesigned classroom, Margaret Doyle taking on an expanded role for industry liaison and  internship coordination for the whole Faculty of Management, and Geoffrey Bird becoming Dr Geoffrey Bird. Geoff is presently leading a team of our MA students in a Parks Canada project in Quebec- a first for the School. Our diploma program in Jinhua, China, got off to a great start with Dr Nancy Chesworth teaching our first cohort of 85 students, and Adjunct Professor Rod Harris was inducted into the Canadian Tourism Hall of Fame. We’re looking forward to welcoming Rebecca Wilson-Mah who starts with us in January. She will be the program lead for the BA International Hotel Management.

We are presently posting the new BA Global Tourism Management curriculum for provincial review and the on-campus, full-time  MA Tourism Management  has been forwarded for Academic Council review. The Study Group two-year on campus curriculum has been approved and development work on courses starts in the new year. Already we have several Study Group students who have declared their intensions of enrolling in our undergraduate programs. I’ll be going to China and India in February 2012 to build more international programming , and Ted Wykes will be continuing his excellent work across Canada in college recruitment. A big thank you to all our Associate Faculty, who contribute so much to the success of our School, and to our great staff- Tanya Aindow, our Manager, Melody Andersson, MA Tourism program, and Kate Egan, BA Hotel Management program.

Finally- thanks to an outstanding group of BA and MA students and Alumni! You’re why we’re here, and your success makes all of us in the School really proud!

Very best wishes to all for the for the New Year–please stay in touch with us, we love to hear about your travels!

Brian White, Director, School of Tourism and Hospitality Management