Senior Reflection Blog #1

Chantilly Academy/ Interning

So some of you know that I take academy at Chantilly High School. I'm currently taking Hospitality Management at Chantilly and part of that course is going to a hotel to intern every Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, depending on the week (black day or red day). From visiting last year and hearing so many great opportunities from this course, I decided to sign up for it. Turns out this class is bull@#$%. Going to the hotel is not as luxurious as I thought it would be. Yeah, you get some work experience but they don't trust us to do anything beyond filing papers in the accounting department or folding napkins in the banquet department (sounds like free labor right? right.) So we get up early in the morning to take a bus to Chantilly, then take another bus to the hotel (unless you have a car then you can just drive to the hotel), change into our unflattering tuxedo shirt and pants and bowtie, then disperse into our stations. So far I've been in the restaurant, banquet, front desk, catering, and accounting departments; I would definitely say restaurant was my favorite. Ironically now, everyone loves being in the classroom on Mondays and Tuesdays and hates going to the hotel. I can't even give you an estimate of how many absences we've had this year because of people skipping hotel days.

Despite of all the negative things I've said about this class, we do have a lot of fun. We (including the teacher) go to places like IHOP from time to time and skip class for the day. My friends and I skip whenever there is a sub and it all turns into this big Mission Possible thing, trying to sneak out of the hotel. We also have a lot of parties. The highlight of this whole year was definitely the trip to Orlando, FL. We took a plane and stayed at the Disney's All Stars Movies Resort, which by the way was the BEST hotel I've ever been in so far. We went to all the parks and I ended up in the hospital the first night because I was running on 1 hour of sleep and 1 cup of coffee in my system, so I passed out. Not too smart. We got to see High School Musical 3 perform live at Universal Studios; but the real actors weren't there to do it, lame. We also had a gorgeous Russian chauffeur named Max drive us to Planet Hollywood the last night, another highlight of the trip. We also ended up getting into a fight with a girl who was standing in line for the rocknrollercoaster. Yeah that was entertaining and memorable. Overall, it was an awesome experience and I would definitely say it was for a great deal because 685 bucks covered round trip plane tickets, food, hotel, parks, 4 days, and a free refillable drink mug *hahaha*.

So that is just a taste of Hospitality Management at Chantilly Academy for you. I wouldn't say I fully enjoyed this class, however, I met some of the best people through this program, as well as a potential roommate in college, although she didn't get accepted to the same school. If you plan to pursue a career in the hotel/restaurant industry, I would definitely take this class. I think that this class along with my job and co-op are the magic bullets that got me into college.