Students gain real-world experience

Students in the School of Hospitality, Sport and Tourism Management (HSTM) put their skills to the test during this semester’s HSTM Senior Summit.  

Dr. Robert Mathner, associate director and professor in the School of Hospitality, Sport and Tourism Management, prepared students in his senior capstone class to present a business pitch. 

Since week two of the semester, students prepared a business plan, including the finances, marketing and facilities, to present to a panel of judges for their senior project.  

“One of the approaches that our faculty wanted to take as we were growing our program was to make sure that our students could take away from their degree a practical understanding and application of how their degree would actually work in real life,” Mathner said.  

The first senior summit started back in 2010 and has since been providing HSTM students with the opportunity to get a taste of the real world.  

“We’re very proud of how this has unfolded over the last 15 years and how beneficial it’s been to students,” Mathner said. 

Troy alumni who graduated with an HSTM degree returned to the summit to help judge the business pitches and help students prepare for their presentations. 

“What’s really cool is we’ve got a couple of our alums who have come back to be our guest judges,” Mathner said. “We have an alum of ours who drove all the way from Orlando, Florida yesterday just to help our students prepare. 

“For one of our alums to give up her time to drive all this way tells us and reaffirms that what we’re doing is meaningful.  

Our folks that have a Troy HSTM degree value that degree and want to share that knowledge and experience with those students who are going to be graduating soon as well.” 

Mathner partnered with Dr. Harriet Dixon, assistant professor in the School of Hospitality, Sport and Tourism Management, to make this event possible.  

Dixon’s students in her Festivals and Special Event Tourism class planned the logistics of the event such as food, decorations and getting the word out through social media posts and flyers around campus.  

“We wanted to give them experience so they can put on their resume that they have practical experience planning the logistics of events,” Dixon said.  

“Our students have lots of opportunities for experiential learning and learning by doing.  

“That’s why we do it, is to give our students real world experience in events, hospitality and tourism.” 

Dixon expressed how proud she was of her students for the hard work they put into planning the event.  

“It makes me feel good,” Dixon said. “They’re doing such a great job, and they seem like they’re having fun.  

“It helps them learn what they like, what they don’t like, what they’re good at and what they’re not good at.  

Giving them that practical experience helps them have more confidence when they graduate so they know what it’s actually like to be responsible for an event.”  

Ellison Laney, a senior sports management major from Phenix City, Alabama, presented with her group a business pitch on a new WNBA team: the Kansas City Renegades.  

“At the end of the day, we were taking a huge risk by doing a team instead of a business and that being women’s basketball,” Laney said.  

“Sports is a male-dominated field, and we are sitting in a room with male-dominated consultants, so getting people who might not already be fans on board for that is important.”  

Laney presented alongside Wesley Neumann, Maren Settle and Mitchell Dashoff, who were the overall winning group.  

Their group was gifted with a HSTM goody bag as a token of appreciation for their dedication. 

Laney’s group pitch on WNBA was also one of the first groups since roughly 2019 to receive a perfect score from the judges.  

“I feel like I might throw up if you want me to be so honest with you,” Laney said.  

“I was really excited to be one of the first perfect scores from a consultant since at least 2019. 

“That’s unheard of, like that’s crazy. It hasn’t quite sunk in yet.”  

Laney said she couldn’t be more proud of the work she and her group put into this project.  

"We’ve put a lot into this,” Laney said. “All semester we’re working on this project.  

“Then you get up there and it’s one of the scariest things ever.  

That’s something that we’re definitely proud of for sure.  

I think I can speak for all of us and say we’re all just really proud of what we accomplished.”