I remember waiting for another ordinary accounting class to begin when the professor stood up and told us that someone was here to talk about an internship program that was run out of the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. I blocked out most of the speech, knowing that my future would not be in politics. I did grab one piece of pertinent information, “This is open to all majors.” After hearing this, still skeptical, I grabbed a brochure.
“There’s no way that this program relates to me, and my hospitality degree,” I thought to myself, but something told me to that I should find a little more information.
Eventually, I found myself on the road, headed to the nation’s capital, a place I had never been, about to work in hospitality’s seldom seen public sector. I was nervous for many reasons; a new city, moving in with 10 other students, starting a new job I knew very little about, and the future unknowns.
Though there are many reasons to be thankful for this experience, one that tops my list must be the broadening of my professional possibilities. I have gone through school studying hospitality, somehow turning a blind eye to the ever-important public sector and therefore never grasping a complete understanding of the hospitality industry as a whole. I can honestly say I have found it, here in Washington D.C., while working in the Department of Commerce in the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries. With this broad grasp of the industry, I have found something that I can take back to Columbus and pay forward to help our own program grow and prosper.
In retrospect, this has been an amazing experience and something that I will never forget. And it all leads back to one frigid winter morning in an ordinary accounting class in Columbus, Ohio…
AAM
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