Victor Melendez’s Profile

Student
Active 3 years, 5 months ago
Victor Melendez
Display Name
Victor Melendez
Major Program of Study
Hospitality Management
Academic interests

Ecotourism, Hospitality, Photography, Geography, Foreign Languages, Aviation, History, Culinary Arts, Travel, Environment, Dance and Mortuary Science

Bio

I’m an honors Hospitality Management student with a focus on Travel & Tourism at New York City College of Technology. I was born in the Dominican Republic, but I grew up mostly in New York. I currently work in Marketing and Communications for MoMA PS1, but I previously worked as a Peer Navigator for an LGBTQ organization assisting communities at risk of contracting HIV. After high school, I spent a year backpacking through the Dominican Republic and volunteering for AFS Intercultural Programs. This year molded me into the person I am today, it even inspired me to study abroad in Germany, France and Italy . Ever since I was a child I have been obsessed with maps and going all over the globe, so much so that Iā€™ve taken courses in 6 languages. There is a world to see and I want every single view.

Facebook
facebook.com/idannybilly1

My Courses

SOC1102 Urban Sociology, Fall 2020

SOC1102 Urban Sociology, Fall 2020

According to the UN, 82.3% of the U.S. population lived in urban areas in 2018; nearly 90% of the U.S. population is expected to live in urban areas by 2050. The New York-Newark metro area is the nationā€™s most populous urban area, followed by Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim and the Chicago area. While increasingly ubiquitous metro areas provide a unique living experience. Cities are thus prime research sites and laboratories to analyze everyday 21st-century American life, as many of Americansā€™ identities and daily lives are strongly tied to urban spaces and shaped by their economic, social and cultural power. This course connects macro-level processes, including global forces, politics and economy to micro-level daily life, such as social interactions among city dwellers. This course is designed to help students develop empirical understanding and analysis of cities. By exploring U.S. urban history from the emergence of modern cities in Europe and in North America during the industrial revolution, students learn how cities were understood not only as a site of production, but also a driving force for modern consumption by looking at department stores and world fairs. Then, students move to explore the U.S. context through Chicago School scholarsā€™ ecological perspectives, and discuss how and why these scholars used the city as a laboratory to analyze modern social life in America. This course focuses particularly on contemporary urban issues in American cities, starting with the post-war era. Why did whites leave cities for the suburbs? Who was left behind? What caused urban riots? What did urban America lose during that time? By taking new urban sociological approaches into account, students will conceptualize the relationships between the state, economy and city in order to understand urban America. This course emphasizes two perspectives. First, students will explore urban changes and transformations in Downtown Brooklyn as an urban laboratory. Together, as a class, we will use various media and scholarly materials in order to understand contemporary urban issues through our daily experiences in Brooklyn. Second, despite the focus on American cities, this course also underscores global and transnational perspectives for comparison. From immigrants who bring their own culture to the presence of global/transnational corporations, most U.S. cities are global entities, and urban lives are intricately tied to globalization. This course, thus, aims to open up discussion about how we connect the micro-level of our social interactions, consumption, and daily lives to macro-levels of the progress, global economic forces, politics and culture.

HMGT2402fall19

HMGT2402fall19

Prof. Goodlad Leads students through an introduction to fermented beverages throughout the world. Study of beverage making and tasting procedures including jargon particular to the beverage trade is reinforced.

HMGT2305-D100-65525

HMGT2305-D100-65525

Procedural, customer and staff perspectives involved in the provision of quality service as practiced in a dining room laboratory. Student rotation through dining room service positions with emphasis on responsibilities of planning, producing and evaluating service. Practice of proper safety and sanitation methods. Critique of restaurant service.

Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable Tourism

This course examines the concepts of planning for tourism facilities at the attraction and destination levels. Emphasis is placed on those concepts and techniques that result in the development of sustainable tourism in both developed and less developed regions. Concepts and techniques to be discussed through the examination of case studies include the tourism area cycle, tourism as economic regeneration, integration of tourism and transportation planning, participation readiness, community-driven planning, tourism resource inventories and urban re-imaging strategies.

HMGT1101PerspectivesSPRING2018

HMGT1101PerspectivesSPRING2018

An overview of the history, likely directions and organizational structure of the hospitality industry and its role in local, national and global economies. Students are introduced to the nature and scope of the hospitality industry, basic terminology, management concepts, career path explorations and the departmentā€™s mission and culture.

My Projects

Thomas Ahrens International Work/Study Programsā€”-Paris

Thomas Ahrens International Work/Study Programsā€”-Paris

Selected Hospitality Management students take part in an exchange program with students from Universite d’Evry during the month of June. This project presents first hand, the business of tourism, hotel management, cuisine and culture to our hospitality students at City Tech. During these 3 weeks our students are based in Paris and have had visits and conferences that included the Hotel de Ville, Rungis Market, Hotel George V, Patisserie Lenotre, Moet et Chandon in Champagne, Restaurant Le Grand Colbert, La Coupole and Le Vefour. Culture is investigated through the everyday experiences of living in Paris. Cuisine is formerly practiced in several culinary schools and informally experienced through day to day market shopping, tastings and restaurant dining. Each year students work on various walking tour assignments and have presented historic and cultural tours of various sites in Paris.

Thomas Ahrens International Work/Study Programs IIā€“ Paris

Thomas Ahrens International Work/Study Programs IIā€“ Paris

Selected Hospitality Management students take part in an exchange program with students from Universite dā€™Evry during the month of June. This project presents first hand, the business of tourism, hotel management, cuisine and culture to our hospitality students at City Tech. During these 3 weeks our students are based in Paris and have had visits and conferences that included the Hotel de Ville, Rungis Market, Hotel George V, Patisserie Lenotre, Moet et Chandon in Champagne, Restaurant Le Grand Colbert, La Coupole and Le Vefour. Culture is investigated through the everyday experiences of living in Paris. Cuisine is formerly practiced in several culinary schools and informally experienced through day to day market shopping, tastings and restaurant dining. Each year students work on various walking tour assignments and have presented historic and cultural tours of various sites in Paris.

My Clubs

Hospitality Garden Club

Hospitality Garden Club

The Garden is a project that teaches students and faculty about the excitement and nuance of growing flowers and vegetables for the Culinary and Pastry labs at NYC College of Technology. We encourage involvement and volunteers from all departments at the college