Make the world yours! UGA has been a special place since I was a kid— and any excuse to get back in a room full of DAWGS is a happy day! 📕 🐾
The University of Georgia Hospitality and Food Managment Majors bring an energy and enthusiasm to living and learning that's undeniably fun and fresh. I had the opportunity to sit down with students recently at the UGA Center for Continuing Education. am excited to share more about it with you all!
It was a happy day with the UGA Hospitality and Food Management Major Class!
Being a guest speaker is an honor. Guest speakers can be a highlight of any course you teach by helping students learn from industry leaders and find inspiration to excel. Outsiders break down fences in the classroom. According to Strategies for Successful Teaching, "Good guest speakers can become contacts for your students, leading to internships or jobs... they can provide a range of views and can contribute to the diversity you want to incorporate in your teaching." I believe this is true, and vice versa as the students become good contacts for a guest speaker.
Last week, in the final class of the year for UGA Hospitality and Food Industry Managememt Majors as the guest speaker we opted out of Zoom. I met up where students live, study and work in Athens, GA. We used real and faux flowers to demonstrate that you don’t have to be perfect to be beautiful— but you must be honest to be real which is important as you search for internships and jobs.
Not everyone is automatically a good guest speaker. I get nervous and may not be the vest but I confess that I love to do it! I feel like it's by duty to share with others in ways to help them learn and excel because so many people have done that for me. This is my way of giving back.
I am originally from a small town in South Georgia before I went to the University of Georgia but now work in my dream job helping businesses and brands communicate using flowers and plants as a owner of the Colonial House of Flowers in Atlanta. I am captivated by the UGA students paths to fulfilling their dreams. I like to discover where they are from, where they'd like to go and how they plan to get there. I was happy to find a connection with many of the students. For example, some were from small towns in Georgia like Statesboro and Saint Simons and one is a part of the Jaemor Farms family who is a famous U-pick flower farm just north of Atlanta.
I learned that one student is a part of a family run flower farm north of Atlanta. Isn't that serendipitous? Plan Your Visit To Jaemor Farms U-Pick Flower Field, here.
Book A Felt Flower Build-A-Bouquet Pop Up, colonial house.net
Using living stems from the Colonial House of Flowers cooler and artificial stems from our felt flower build-a-bouquet service (pictured above) we discussed how to land your dream job by developing connections, interviewing thoughtfully and using what you learned in school authentically (ask the students— but the funniest thing was when they asked about that one time I worked at Disney World).
Lots of UGA Food and Hospitality Students stayed after class to discuss and connect more... made me feel so good!
As students asked a question and I gave them a thank you flower for participation. Upon answering their question, I asked them if the stem was real or artificial. With 100% accuracy they immediately knew which plants were faux, which proved my point that as perfect and beautiful as your resume or interview may be it is easy to spot when it's not real.
Meet: Liv Smith, _living.fully, Athens, Georgia based Hospitality and Food Blog
I can’t wait to see how far these fabulous University of Georgia #UGAHFIM students go!
It’s dog-eat-dog world (DAWG-EAT-DAWG)— make it yours!
Come visit Colonial House of Flowers in downtown Roswell or invite us over for your next class or meeting— we’ll discuss your topic of choice and come bearing a plant or flower too!
More about the the degree program in hospitality and food industry management at UGA:
It will prepares students for jobs across a broad spectrum of opportunities available in hotels and resorts, restaurants, meeting and event management, club management, agritourism and related fields. Students take courses specializing in hotel operations, food and beverage management, and meeting and event planning and also learn the traditional hospitality management subject areas like economics, accounting, finance, administration, marketing, human resource management, and strategy. Courses also include ustainable food production, food science and safety, food policy, soil and water management, turfgrass management, viticulture and enology, and coffee production.
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- Leveraging Guest Speakers Increase Student Learning, Edutopia.org