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2017 Yummy Hawaii Internship Opportunity

1/25/2017

Yummy Restaurant Group Summer Internship Restaurant Group Summer Internship in Honolulu, Hawaii

Kristina Osborn, 2016 internship recipient

2016 internship recipient, Kristina Osborn

Dining Room overlooking Honolulu

What an excellent opportunity to work a 4 week internship in Hawaii with airfare, lodging, and 2 meals per day paid for by Yummy Restaurant Group! Interns will work 5 days a week with 2 days off to explore the island. As part of this internship, you will rotate between different restaurant operations getting a broad understanding of how a multiple concept restaurant company is managed and operated.

Four interns will be selected for this prestigious opportunity. This internship is only open to Restaurant, Hotel, Meetings Management (RHM) students.

You can pick up an application at 420 Russell Hall.
Application Deadline is March 31st

For more information, e-mail kssevert@ches.ua.edu

To see video from last year's internship visit our Vimeo page!

The Shila Bowron Leadership Lecture Series

11/10/2016

Paul van Leeuwen

The Hospitality Leadership Series of the Restaurant, Hotel, and Meetings Management Program at The University of Alabama began in 2002 in an effort to achieve the goal of exposing students to a variety of hospitality leaders and their perspectives of the hospitality industry. In 2010, Mr. William A. Bowron, Jr., President, Red Diamond, Inc. Birmingham, Alabama, made a generous gift to the Restaurant, Hotel and Meetings Management Program to rename the Hospitality Leadership Series, the Shila Bowron/Red Diamond Leadership Series in honor of his mother.

The Restaurant, Hotel, and Meetings Management Program at The University of Alabama was established in 1985 as part of the Department of Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management, in the College of Human Environmental Sciences. More than 600 students have graduated from the program and are employed in a variety of hospitality management positions throughout the United States. There are over 400 students currently enrolled in the program.

This semester's speaker for the Shila Bowron/Red Diamond Leadership Lecture was Mr. Paul van Leeuween. Mr. van Leeuwen is a senior hospitality executive with over 30 years of experience. He spent close to 20 years with the Walt Disney Company leading Business Planning and Development teams throughout the world. As an executive and former vice president at the Walt Disney Company, Mr van Leeuwen was instrumental in seeing Walt Disney World Paris from conception through construction to opening. More recently he has led a private equity fund and served as President for a $100 million integrated hospitality company.

He shared the challenges he faced and the experience he gained from his time at the Walt Disney Company with our RHM students during the course of two lectures on Thursday, November 10, 2016. The RHM faculty hosted a dinner for Mr. van Leeuwen and his family at a local restaurant owned by an alumnus of the RHM program. Lunch the following day was enjoyed at The University Club, which is managed by the College of Human Environmental Sciences' Department of Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management.

HES Foods Lab

10/26/2016

It’s all about food, says one University of Alabama professor. “Food is the core of nutrition, and it’s an integral part of the hospitality industry,” said Dr. Mary Kay Meyer, professor in the human nutrition and hospitality management program, as well as assistant dean in UA’s College of Human Environmental Sciences. “We talk about what food does to the body, but if you can’t get the food into the body, you’ve lost the battle,” Meyer said. “I want students to be excited about food and really appreciate what you can do with food, if you have the right equipment.”

Students enrolled in food and nutrition courses should have no problem garnering that enthusiasm, thanks to the $1.5 million state-of-the-art foods lab located on the ground floor of Doster Hall. The foods lab, which opened in the fall of 2013, gives food and nutrition students access to the traditional gas ranges and conventional ovens, as well as providing them opportunities to experiment with induction units, combi-ovens (a combination steaming unit and oven) and a convection oven. They will also have the smaller pieces that every high-quality foods lab needs – pressure cookers and fryers, mixers and more.

Former graduate teaching assistant Morgan Patterson, of Demopolis, said most students learn about this equipment in class, but they do not have an opportunity to work with it until they are in the work force. “Having this opportunity just increases their skill set,” said Patterson.

Human nutrition and hospitality management are not culinary programs. The courses focus on the science behind food and how principles of food preparation impact nutrient content, taste, texture and appearance. “Although there are ovens and ranges in this lab, we blend the science experimentation, which uses chemistry lab supplies like beakers, pH strips and titration equipment, with culinary applications,” said Dr. Kristi Michele Crowe, a food chemist, dietitian and assistant professor of nutrition at UA. “In other words, we teach how the concepts of food chemistry are used in the food industry to develop food products, yet the same principles are taking place in one’s own kitchen.”

“Understanding the science of food has allowed for an explosion of nutritious food choices with reasonably long shelf-lives,” Crowe said. “Without the understanding of the chemistry of macro and micronutrients and the interactions between them, dietitians could not adequately counsel patients on how to modify their diets for health and wellness.

Students can also utilize the new food sensory lab to conduct research studies. Meyer said the department has wanted to build that research component, but this is the first time they have had the facilities to do so. The audio-visual component of the lab brings a new dimension to the curriculum for the department’s online programs by having taped demonstrations made available to distance-learning students. In addition, students enrolled in catering and quantity food production courses have utilized the lab to learn operation and safety of commercial cooking equipment. There is also a food preparation course offered to hospitality majors. In addition, the UA's College of Community Health Sciences partnered with the College of Human and Environmental Sciences to create a Culinary Medicine elective which offers cooking classes and a follow-up discussion for medical students, Family Medicine residents and nutrition students on how to better educate patients about their diets.

The Food Lab from UA Undergraduate Admissions on Vimeo.

Yummy Hawaii Internships

4/26/2016

Peter Kim, a former Crimson Tide football player and founder of the Yummy Restaurant Group in Hawaii, offered our Restaurant, Hotels & Meetings Management students a chance to spend a month-long internship working in his restaurants and corporate office in Honolulu . A highly competitive group of interested students filled out applications and wrote 500 word essays in the hopes of winning one of the two coveted internships. We congratulate Megan Birkes and Kristina Osborn for being selected as the recipients of this marvelous opportunity. They will each be given round-trip airfare, lodging, and two meals a day plus, of course, the opportunity to work and learn first-hand from a successful restaurateur. We thank Peter Kim for his generosity and his commitment to students' success.

Megan Birkes is a rising senior from Orlando, FL. She is an RHM major with a concentration in Event Planning and is looking forward to getting to see the full picture of the industry from the back-of-house to the corporate office. She would like to work as a Hospitality Director on a cruise ship after graduating and eventually be able to mentor others in professional development.

Kristina Osborn is a rising senior from Latta, SC. She is also an RHM major but with a concentration in Hotels. She is eager to gain an understanding of how a corporate office operates and how they incorporate ideas into the workplace. She plans on pursuing a graduate degree and then is open to wherever the industry takes her.

We are proud of these two young women and wish them all the best. Aloha!

Peter Kim, founder, Yummy Restaurant Group

Megan Birkes

Kristina Osborn

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2017 Yummy Hawaii Internship Opportunity

The Shila Bowron Leadership Lecture Series

HES Foods Lab

Yummy Hawaii Internships

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