Hospitality and tourism management students raise funds for New Orleans students
Students in the Hospitality Management Association at Virginia Tech’s Pamplin College of Business have raised $900 to help fellow hospitality and tourism management students at the University of New Orleans who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina. The student club’s 52 members raised the funds through personal donations from students, faculty and staff members, alumni, family, and friends.
The association’s president, Kimberly Bryan, a senior from Basking Ridge, N.J., said she and another club member were discussing how they could help Katrina victims when the head of Virginia Tech’s hospitality and tourism management department, Rick Perdue, asked her if the club would be interested in helping to raise money for the students of the program at the University of New Orleans.
“The hospitality and tourism academic community across the country is relatively small,” Bryan said, “and several members of the hospitality and tourism management faculty at Virginia Tech, including Perdue, have friends who are faculty at the University of New Orleans. Perdue felt that coming together and assisting the students of the hospitality and tourism management program was an important way in which we could show our care and support.”
Bryan will send the funds to the director of the Lester E. Kabacoff School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Administration. The club will continue to collect donations for the New Orleans students, she added, and will also contribute a portion of the proceeds from its Halloween fundraiser, where members sell Halloween themed treats around campus throughout October, to send to the students.
Donations can be sent to: Hospitality Management Association, 362 Wallace Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061.
The Hospitality and Management Association is a professional organization aimed at giving students practical experience in catering, quantity food production and presentations, hotel/motel operations, sales and marketing, and association management. Through catering functions, members raise funds to attend trade shows and conventions.
Virginia Tech’s nationally ranked Pamplin College of Business offers undergraduate and graduate programs in accounting and information systems, business information technology, economics, finance, hospitality and tourism management, management, and marketing. The college emphasizes the development of ethical values and leadership, technology, and international business skills. A member of its marketing faculty directs the interdisciplinary Sloan Foundation Forest Industries Center at Virginia Tech. The college’s other centers focus on business leadership, electronic commerce, and organizational performance. The college is committed to serving business and society through the expertise of its faculty, alumni, and students. It is named in honor of Robert B. Pamplin (Class of 1933), the former CEO of Georgia-Pacific, and his son, businessman and philanthropist Robert B. Pamplin Jr. (Class of 1964).
