I am a person who have worked in many different job fields. Such as the medical field, fast food, education, and the armed forces. Whenever I decided I wanted to change careers I took the necessary steps to achieve my goal. Presently, I want to learn about culinary arts and the tools I need to cook healthy cuisines at home and at my own business. Growing up I hated being in the kitchen but now as a mom I love cooking. My love for cooking begin when I first was introduce to the food channel network. Watching the shows and competitions reminded me of my years when I was studying dance and fine arts. My dreams as a dancer was shattered by my parents when I was told to choose a real career (their words not mine). As a result, I spent a lot of money and time on career paths I was not passionate about. Now I am at a point in my life where I want to wake up every day knowing I am doing something that I love.

Throughout high school I was in the academy of hospitality and tourism, and at the time I didn’t know if that was the path I wanted to continue on. Once it came to picking colleges I made the executive decision to stick with hospitality courses. I have always had a deep love and appreciation for traveling and cooking, which I feel made my decision easier. As of right now I am exploring my options within the industries because I am not certain as to what I want to do for a career. My career, as of right now, is working with elementary school children, so I have a lot of patience when it comes to dealing with people. The future of my career, although uncertain, is one that I am looking forward to.

I have always wanted to cook since high school and wanted to culinary arts in college. However, growing up as a first-generation Chinese American meant that expectations were to get a good paying job that can support me, my parents and my future family, and culinary arts just was not an option given to me. Therefore, I temporarily had to give it up.

During my past five years in college, I have been rediscovering myself and looking for other paths, but I still wanted to cook (or at least do something related to food), and had opportunities to volunteer at my church, do prep work for SUNY Buffalo Dining Services, and work at the Qdoba right around my home. I started to learn about what hospitality is and I realized that there are ways to pursue my dream and also meet the expectations of my parents and grandparents. Then early this year, that was when I discovered CityTech’s Hospitality Management program.

In the future, I still do want to cook, but I am open to other options that CityTech has to offer me. I am really looking forward to this semester and working with everyone for the next few years!

Near the end of High School when it was time to apply for College, I had no idea on what I really want to commit for a major in. However, as time went on, I have expressed interest in Cooking for various reasons: I am more interested in “Trade” Jobs (such as electrician, carpenters, etc.), and culinary arts seems to be right choice for me as I wanted to return to cooking; I cooked my first dish with some help when I was 10 years old, but since getting ingredients was a hassle. In addition, this will further enhance my work (particularly “trade” jobs) experience on top of Aviation Maintenance (from High School, but it wasn’t for me), Retail, and custodial work. I would view myself as learning multiple trade jobs, as I am interested in exploring the opportunities of Hospitality Management with it’s various internships. In the future, I can view myself as either a chef in various restaurants with decent pay, or as a Food Service manager in the same restaurants.

During my first semester at CityTech, I have learned more about myself and what the hospitality management has to offer. I learned that as a student, time is valuable and you need to manage your time wisely with your work and life outside of school. I hope to continue to focus and do well in my school work to be able to apply for the Disney internship. In order to reach my goal of being an intern for Disney, I will need to be confident and I will be open-minded as I start working in the kitchen next semester and see what I am more interested in. I would also like to start looking into new opportunities to gain experience as a college student in the hospitality industry.

Ever since I was a kid, I enjoyed watching Disney movies, TV shows, and going to Disney World with my family. The friendly and joyful Disney employees are very welcoming and when I experienced their hospitality, I decided to major in Hospitality Management. I currently do not have any experience in hospitality but my goal is to pursue a career in Disney World specifically in the hotel management industry. I want to take the opportunity to apply for the Disney internship and explore what Disney has to offer for me. Some of my personal strengths include being organized, focused, patient, and helpful. I believe that if I can keep up these traits, I will be able to serve others with the same hospitality that I experienced as a guest at Disney World.