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Honor Scholars Project

How wonderful it was to work with an Honors Scholar Student, Banessa Espinal-Cruz on this City Tech Wines tech sheet.

Description of Honors Scholars Project, HMGT 2402

Students in the Wines of the New World course participate in a service project in which they learn about and make wine to be served in the Janet Lefler Dining Room, creating an opportunity for shared experiences between student across the department. To better prepare students in the Dining Room Operation Course to learn about the wine they will serve, learning materials were developed and shared with Dining Room Operation students. The purpose of the learning material is to assist students new to beverage service on the significance of the wine they present to guests. Specifically, the region the grapes are grown and the taste profile of the wine, while also emphasizing the student’s role in creating the wine for the college. The development of these materials will be designed to enhance the quality of service and expectations of students in the Dining Room Operation course.

Student Personal Reflection of Honors Scholars Project

At the beginning of this project, my level of knowledge of wine production and wine blending was minimal. As the project progressed, I was able to learn the details of wine making and how to communicate what I know. For example, I learned the terminology associated with wine regions, grapes, age, color, vinification, and how to describe wine. When I reflect upon this piece I see a challenge, one that I was able to face and learn from.  When I started I also did not know about the organizations that are part of the project or how they support and interact with their community. I appreciate that they value education.

First Year Learning Community, 2018

Our Learning Community was comprised of HMGT 1101 Perspectives of Hospitality Management (Goodlad) and HMGT 1102 Introduction to Food and Beverage Management (Stewart). The 1101 class has a assignment based on the weekly New York Times 36 Hours in… in which readers are advised where to visit in a particular city or neighborhood. In Karen’s class, students were asked to choose a specific location within Brooklyn based on their assigned category of tourism. In Claire’s class, students were asked to choose one iconic NYC food item that could be found within that location.

The oral presentations were fantastic and all but two of the students ultimately followed the guidelines. The students brought examples of their food items and we ended up having a fun and educational feast!

The way the assignment was executed in HMGT 1101 was through a blog post. The instructions can be read here. Two examples of student learning show the how students can deepen their understanding of travel and tourism and show their learning in various forms of communication. The first blog post was chosen because of it’s sophistication and inclusion of links supporting what the student is writing about, I also believe the student’s writing style is inviting as she addresses all of the components of the assignment; the second blog post shows the student’s ability to evaluate a category of tourism, incorporate a variety or diverse activities, and explain what a tourist would expect when visiting Brooklyn, including lodging options.  I believe students showed great growth from previous work submitted and during an oral reflection students mentioned that the challenges were manageable and that they learned a lot about time management as well as Brooklyn.

Opening My Classroom To Industry Professionals

Open Pedagogy on the OpenLab has so many benefits. One of these benefits is making students work “real” and not just a class assignment. During the Spring 2017 Wine and Beverage Management course as student’s work was recognized as impactful by an industry professional. Malika Ikramova’s Retail Wine Assignment was conducted at Slope Cellars and impressed the company so much that they took the time to comment on her experiential learning blog post. Read about what she learned here: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/hmgt2402s17/2017/03/15/slope-cellars/#comment-76

Place-based Learning, HMGT1101

Place-base learning is a central part of my teaching practice. In HMGT 1101, Perspectives in Hospitality Management, I take my students to visit the Carlyle Hotel. Here they meet a number of different hotel executives and receive a tour of the hotel.

Student reflections are of particular interest to the learning process and can be seen following this link. Thought the formal student learning outcomes of “Explore the roles and responsibilities of key executives and department heads in the hospitality industry.” and “Differentiate hotel classifications.” are met through this site visit the less tangible, more college ready outcomes often portray how a student is growing as a learner and future hospitality professional. Below is one reflection which shows personal growth and confidence, all reflections can be read here:

“Normally I don’t wear suits, but we had to dress professional to visit the Carlyle. The trip over there in the train was different for me, I felt like people stared at me less, I also felt a bit more respected, some people said “excuse me sir” I have never been called sir in a train station, then being around a lot of men in suits or women dress professional I felt like I was one of them and also felt like I was important with a job title or with a good paying job. Overall it was a fantastic experience being to hotel rooms that I’ll probably never be able to afford and seeing the luxury people pay thousands of dollars for.”

Blending Community, Philanthropy and Education in the News

As the Co-principle Investigator of the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts Grant with Lynda Dias, since 2012 we have been awarded $7000 annually ($5000 in 2012) to create learning opportunities that include place-based learning at an urban winery. This grant impacts between 130 to 170 students annually. It is estimated that 70% of the 2017 graduates were impacted by this grant funding.
The reach of this project has extended out of City Tech. The Bridge, whose “focus is on the breakthrough companies, entrepreneurs and trends that have made Brooklyn a worldwide brand and a growing economic center” has over 2000 twitter followers and 1500 Instagram followers. In 2017 they published an article about innovative teaching practices and included this project. The New York Daily News showcased the student wine making project in their 2016 college showcase edition.

About the assignment, in the Wines of the New World class we apply proven high-impact educational practices whereby students actively participate in the wine making process. They have the opportunity to punch down the cap, taste recently harvested grapes, evaluate stems and seeds for ripeness, taste active fermenters and barrel samples as well. Students then create two proprietary blends, both a red and white wine. The collaborative learning project we call “Blending Community, Philanthropy, and Education” impacts the learning of student in the department’s dining room operation course as well. The dining room students learn about and served the wines in the college’s Janet Lefler Dining Room.

o 2016: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/new-world-wines-f16/
o 2015: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/new-world-wines-f15/category/team-two/
o 2014: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/new-world-wines-14/
o 2013: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/new-world-wines-13/
o 2012: https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/wines-of-the-new-world/

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