Hotel, school offer students hands-on learning

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Anthony Bernico, 17, of Sandwich High School, washes dishes within the kitchen at the Best Western Timber Creek Inn & Suites in Sandwich on Tuesday October 20, 2009.

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SANDWICH – Melissa Ray dreams of opening her own hotel one day.

Providing a nice place for people to stay, planning weddings and other events, and helping others appeal to her, she said.

Her hotel dream is just one reason the Hinckley-Big Rock junior has enrolled this year in the Hospitality Management program at Indian Valley Vocational Center in Sandwich.

The program gives students hands-on experience in the industry, thanks to a partnership with the Best Western Timber Creek Inn & Suites and Convention Center that allows the 13 students in the class to meet every afternoon in the Sandwich hotel.

“I think it’s really fun,” Ray said. “It’s better than being at school and sitting down all the time. You get to get up and move around.”

The program is one of 15 offered at IVVC, which is a partnership of 11 area high schools – including Hinckley-Big Rock, Indian Creek, Sandwich and Somonauk in DeKalb County – that allows students to take courses in vocational areas while still in high school.

Students attend classes at IVVC either in the morning or afternoon, and spend the rest of the day at their home school.

Ron Pieper, director of IVVC, said the school aims its programs to meet the region’s work force needs. When he found out a hotel was going to be in the city – Timber Creek Inn opened in early 2008 – it was a no-brainer to start offering a hospitality class, he said.

“When I found out about the hotel, I thought, well, they are going to need some workers,” Pieper said. “It was a great marriage for us. We felt there was a need to help the hotel train workers.”

Pieper said the partnership is a win for the school, hotel and students. The school – which is tight on space – gets another classroom without having to add on to the facility. The students get hands-on training that cannot be duplicated in a classroom.

And the hotel gets a set of staff to work during the week, and possibly to hire as employees in the future. That happened this summer: Four of the students in the hospitality class last year worked there on their break from school.

Hotel co-owner Karen Bohnstedt said the agreement with IVVC was brokered between Pieper and her father, Ralph Webb, who is the developer for the hotel.

“We said, sure, we’ll try it out,” she said. “It helps us to get the work done and gives the kids some hands-on experience.”

The instructors, IVVC staff and hotel management are working to iron out any kinks from the first year of the program, she said, in order to constantly provide the best experience for the students.

Classrooms time on Wednesdays and Friday is spent with a textbook on hospitality management, instructor Michelle Bohr said, which includes learning about all aspects of the industry.

On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, students are in the hotel doing a variety of duties. Some work at the front desk, greeting guests, while others may be in the kitchen preparing food for the Top Shelf Grille & Bar in the hotel or helping housekeeping with cleaning rooms. Others may set up banquet rooms for weddings or other events.

“It’s not like they are in a classroom and hearing second-hand what it’s like,” Bohr said. “They are actually out there doing it.”

Somonauk High School senior Jill Ferguson is in her second year of the program. She worked at the hotel over the summer, and continues that work in the evenings and on weekends. She was staffing the front desk Tuesday afternoon.

“I like meeting new people, and making new friends,” she said when asked why she enrolled in the program. “For me, this is a very good experience.”

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