Spotlight
Hospitality Meets High Tech
| USFSM
Hospitality students plan, organize, cook and serve an upscale dinner each year at their HospitaBull Evening, a fundraising event that helps send them to industry conferences.
Photo courtesy of USFSM
For 10 years, USFSM has served the hospitality and tourism industry with a dynamic School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. Graduates of the school enjoy a 98 percent job placement rate in their field.
Now, in response to the needs of Florida's largest employment sector, the school has a new name — the College of Hospitality and Technology Leadership. The change reflects the addition of the information technology program to the college. Cihan Cobanoglu, who has been serving as dean of the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, is dean.
USFSM's new college is poised to be among the top 10 hospitality schools nationwide, thanks to creative partnerships, such as one with the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Students in restaurant management and event management classes get hands-on experience at the historic Crosley Mansion. Also, plans are under way to utilize the Bradenton Area Convention Center for pragmatic classwork.