To start off my mind map we look at the things I’m most passionate about. My passions include music, traveling, the gym, and art. I have always been extremely passionate about music and my dad knows how to play the guitar, bass, ukulele, piano, and harmonica so I grew up surrounded by live music 24/7. I was lucky enough to experience countless concerts throughout my life and my love for music has only grown since. I also was lucky enough to travel around the USA and other countries too. I love getting to learn about new cultures and try new foods. I also really enjoy staying in hotels and Airbnbs, my dad will only stay in an Airbnb so I’ve gotten to stay in some super unique homes. My brother has always been a huge gym rat and recently I’ve started to workout more often. The fact that the arc is only two minutes away is super motivating for me and I’ve noticed my progress from the summer. I also think it’s super important to understand nutrition and health because it’s really challenging to stay healthy and consistent with such limited food options. For my last passion I put art because I love being creative and experimenting with different media. My grandma has always been into art and ever since I can remember we’ve done crafts together. I think that art is such a cool way to express emotions without actually saying anything.
Based on my passions, I looked up different career options in the hospitality industry. The first one that caught my eye was being a music festival organizer for destination events. I would love to plan a music festival like Tomorrowland or LaLaPalozza. Getting to design those stages, collaborate with the local community, and promote the event is just something I can fully see myself doing later on in life. Another career path I found was a hotel entertainment coordinator.I’d love to make a guest's experience even better by offering different activities because I know that automatically makes my travel experience ten times better. The other career path I thought was interesting was being a wellness retreat organizer. I feel like I could 100% see myself doing this later on in life because I know how important it was for me to focus on my mental and physical health and having the opportunity to help others plan activities for their health would be so inspiring.
My core values that I will not go against are communication, honesty, and consistency. I believe that communication is the key to any relationship because it’s impossible to read minds. Effective communication eliminates the chance for miscommunication and bigger problems in the future. I also value honesty because it shows true character and it’s better to come forward and tell the truth than to get caught up in a web of lies. Lastly, consistency is something I value because without it you can't be motivated or disciplined. Being consistent means to show up no matter what, it doesn’t matter if you can’t be the best as long as you try your best.
Looking at my career goals I have short term goals which I’ll work on this school year and in the summer, I also have long term goals which I hope to achieve in the next 4 years. In the short term I’d like to possibly get a job on campus and then in the summer maybe working at a hotel at the front desk. I don’t have any experience in the hospitality industry yet so I’d like to get a start on that this summer. In the long term I want to be able to move up in the hospitality industry, maybe get an internship somewhere and really start to commit myself to my job. I’ve been talking to some of the upper class-men who are in HTM and they have been telling me about their jobs and internships, basically getting an idea of where I could be in the next 2 years.
My top strengths I would have to say are teamwork, conversations/communication, and creativity. I love being able to work with other people because I think it doubles productivity and perspectives. Bouncing ideas off one another and strengthening them to create something incredible is so rewarding and you get to share those joys with your team. I also think it shows a good leader because responsibilities have to be shared and it’s not one person doing the whole project and you have to be able to take accountability of what you have to get done in order for the whole group to benefit. Another strength of mine is communication and conversation skills. Like I said, communication is a huge value to me and so is being able to have a conversation.This is such an important aspect of the hospitality industry because a big part of your interactions are with guests and you have to make sure that they feel satisfied with their stay and you want to better their experience by having a positive interaction. Hotels can offer the exact same experience but what completes it is the people and how they get treated. That being said I love to talk and I think everyone has a story to tell, and having a conversation is a two way street you have to be able to talk and listen to comprehend. Finally the last strength I wanted to mention was creativity. Throughout my life I’ve been in several different clubs where you had to think outside the box and come up with unique problem solving ideas. As well as that, being around art and music my whole life have only helped me become more creative. I love making my own jewelry or clothes and I think that could be such a cool thing to incorporate into the hospitality industry. Something I want to better myself in, is my organization skills. I’m a pretty organized person, but I want to start getting more organized with school, work, and friends. If I end up in an event planning organization it is a crucial skill so it would be good to start healthy habits now to use them later on. I can do this by getting a planner to help with school, leaving sticky notes to help with work, and setting reminders of what I need to do daily to help with friends and my social life.
My role models throughout my life have been Taylor Swift and Jill France. Taylor Swift is so inspirational to me because she never stops working it seems, there’s always a new album or tour or rerelease. I think seeing how the Eras tour brought revenue to the hotels in every city she was in showed me how important the hospitality industry truly is. I know that some hotels would decorate their lobby if she was in town because they knew that their target market for that weekend would be Taylor Swift fans and I have friends who took pictures with backdrops at their hotels. She is such a huge motivation to me and I can only hope to be a fraction of the success she is. My other role model is Jill France, my DECA advisor. The three years of me being in DECA at my high school Mrs.France has always been there for me, and getting to work alongside her my senior year as the DECA president showed me just how much work she puts into her job. There’s always an issue happening whether it's a student forgetting to pay their dues or a flight needing to be rescheduled for the DECA competition and she was there fixing it so no one would need to stress about it. She’s the one who introduced me to travel and tourism and hospitality and lodging so I thank her when it comes to picking a major