Essays

Shelly-Ann Stanislaus
The 2008-2009 academic year has been a challenging one for me. During the first term, I was much frazzled because of the classes I decided to pursue. I completed twenty five (25) full credits which included 6 courses. I successfully attempted the following courses: Food Sanitation Certification, Human Resource, Hospitality Law, Hospitality Accounting III, Resident Assistant classes and the most stressful of all was the Leadership classes which were for the honors option. One of my memorable moments was when I delivered a presentation at the conclusion of the class. In attendance was the President of the College, the Dean of students and other important members of the faculty and staff at Johnson &Wales. They were very impressed at my public speaking ability and the overall presentation. I worked really hard to gain honors credit and the outcome was very rewarding. My professor then motivated me and suggested that I became an honors student. I took her advice and applied to do the honors program. During the Christmas break, I received an acceptance letter in the mail from the Honors Director. My term GPA has increased considerably, but my overall GPA only went up by 0.01 point.

The second term was much easier. However, I paid too much attention to my honors classes and not enough to my regular classes. This resulted in all A’s for my honor classes and B’s and B+’s for the rest of my classes. Consequently, this affected my GPA in a negative way. I was not happy about my results this term. I also enrolled in the Student Leadership Academy. We attended sessions every Friday for 4 hours. This was a fun learning experience which culminated at the end of the term with a graduation dinner and awards ceremony where I was chosen to deliver a speech on behalf of all the graduates. We all received certificates, new name tags, Johnson &Wales leather folders, pens and a commemorative CD with a slide show of all our sessions. That night we were all dubbed “Student Leaders” and were all proud of our accomplishments.

Spring Break was good and my job as a Resident Assistant is still going on strong. I recently received confirmation that I will be a Head Resident Assistant this coming fall. I am currently doing my hotel externship at The Newport Beachside Hotel & Resort and so far it has been a great learning experience for me. I have experienced training in various departments including Sales & Catering, Front Office, Reservations, the Executive Office, Human Resources and Housekeeping. I recently applied for the Head Orientation Leader position for summer employment at the University. I am currently awaiting a response from my application. If all goes well, I graduate with my Associate of Science degree on May 24, 2009 and my parents will be joining me at the graduation ceremony. CHATEF has made it possible for all these good things to happen and I am very excited about it all.

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