Three people paddleboarding on a lake in front of Sea Island Resort.
FDU PARTNER -- SEA ISLAND RESORT

This program offers students an immersive education that combines a structured work experience with a distinctive academic program from a top hotel management school.

Exchanging the college lifestyle for broad work environment experiences is a choice in itself, but it speaks to the preparedness, maturity, and focus of a graduate which distinguishes our students from the “ordinary” college graduate.

Furthermore, the program’s experiential learning focus is an attractive alternative for students whose learning style is suited to the action and doing that will prepare them with real life management and leadership skills.

From a parent’s perspective, the program offers a secure alternative to the college experience in that all work experience partners are vetted, trained, and committed to the program. It is in their interest that the student/intern experience is rewarding since the partners are seeking a long-term relationship with the students and the program. This program reduces the overall cost of going to college. Students are paid during their time of employment; their earnings can offset their board and lodging (for remote locations), provide pocket money, and cover some of the tuition costs that are not covered by grants and scholarships.

For the employer, there exists a talent gap and need to constitute a “bench” from which they can recruit their future management. This partnership of FDU and partner organizations allow them to develop a source of well-prepared, motivated trainee staff who can gradually build up the skills, knowledge, and talent they aspire to recruit longer-term.

The Process

FDU has considerable experience operating structured internships and online offsite programs for students working in hospitality organizations. Based on this experience the process will include several steps to ensure success focused admission, strong academic and professional support while students are engaged in the program, proactive career and professional advisement and extracurricular activities that enhance and promote a sense of student communities within the program and their work locations.

  • Success focused admission
    The admission process begins with an information session to all admits that explains the steps they will need to take to be admitted into this program. Essentially, students will need to pass two admissions “hurdles”. The first is academic admission into FDU and the program and the second is professional admission into the work experience.

    • FDU will manage the academic admission to the program
    • Our partner resorts will manage the “professional admission” to the program.

The admission process will seek to create small cohorts of minimum 4 to 5 students in order to create a sense of community among the students. The total organization size will determine the number of cohorts it can absorb.

  • Academic and professional support
    The program will be managed by an Academic Program Advisor who is responsible for being a liaison with the organization(s) leadership team. The Academic Program Advisor will ensure the monitoring and supporting the students’ successful pathway to graduation. The student/employee must meet both the program’s standards set by both the partner organizations (with respect to work obligations) and FDU (with respect to academic standing and other requirements of FDU students).
  • Career and professional advisement
    The FDU Academic Program Advisor will be expected to visit the partner organizations once per academic year. During these visits the FDU advisor will meet each student and meet the leadership team to discuss the program.
  • Extracurricular activities
    It is important to provide the student/employee participating in this program with organized extracurricular activities that will enhance their experience and widen their knowledge of the region, people, and resources. Activities such as the following will be organized and provided under pre-arranged agreements between the program leaders (Partner Organization and Academic).

    • Professional visits
    • Sport
    • Health and wellness
    • Student driven initiatives

The 4-year academic plan will lead to a BA in Hospitality & Tourism Management.

  • This academic program will be delivered mostly online asynchronously and adapted to the program’s delivery method.
  • This will be achieved by students completing 120 credits in four years. They will be enrolled full-time in spring and fall. Each fall and spring semester 9 credits are “hard courses” i.e. ordinary college-level courses while the other 3-4 credits (to make it up to 12 or 13 credits) are either work experience or portfolio type courses.
  • These work experience/portfolio courses will be offered within our school’s Professional Development Series (PDS) which has a proven successful track record. For this program, this series will be offered differently from the one offered on campus. The PDS track for this program will be offered as hybrid or fully online seminars and form the backbone of a continued developmental approach to career building.
  • In general, the program will be offered as a lockstep program; no choices will be given to students other than very few electives. This is important to create a sense of community among the students engaged in this program regardless of their location in terms of partner organization location.
  • A variant of the 120-credit program will be structured as a 60-credit program (four semesters and two summers) and offered to exceptionally prepared associates degree graduates.

Degree Requirements

BA Major Requirements: 40 Credits

  • Major Courses: 27 credits (9 courses)
    • HRTM2214 Sales & Marketing Management
    • HRTM2215 Deciphering Accounting in Hospitality Business
    • HRTM2223 Heads In Beds
    • HRTM3200 Food & Beverage Bus., Complexities & Innovations.
    • HRTM3225 Hospitality Luxury Brand Management
    • HRTM3218 Hotel Asset Management
    • HRTM3219 Managing Talent Acquisition, Retention, & Motivation
    • HRTM3263 Analyzing & Developing Accommodation Business
    • HRTM4205 Service Business in the Next Millenium
  • Required Upper Division Professional Development Series Courses: 13 credits
    • HRTM3105 Managerial Challenges (PDS 5)
    • HRTM2505 PDS 5 Lab
    • HRTM3106 Manager and the Group (PDS 6)
    • HRTM2506 PDS 6 Lab
    • HRTM3250 Club Management may substitute for HRTM4107 and HRTM2507)
    • HRTM4280 Domestic and International
    • HRTM3129 Capstone Work Experience
  • Free electives: 38 Credits
  • Minimum of 21 credits in Hospitality or Hospitality related courses (11 credits are required work experience)
  • Work Experience
    • HRTM4283 Work Experience 4
    • HRTM4284 Work Experience 5
    • HRTM4285 Work Experience 6
  • Other Free electives: 17 credits

Specialization in Healthcare Hospitality (Immersion Studies) Major Requirements: 40 Credits

  • Major Courses: 27 credits (9 courses)
    • HRTM2214 Sales & Marketing Management
    • HRTM2215 Deciphering Accounting in Hospitality Business
    • MEDT2006 Medical Terminology Health Professionals
    • HRTM3200 Food & Beverage Bus., Complexities & Innovations
    • MEDT3208 Intro to Health Care Economic
    • HRTM3218 Hotel Asset Management
    • HRTM3219 Managing Talent Acquisition, Retention, & Motivation
    • MEDT4303 Global Healthcare
    • MEDT4308 Management Principles for Healthcare
  • Required Upper Division Professional Development Series Courses: 13 credits
    • HRTM3129 Capstone Work Exp
    • HRTM3263 Service Business in the Next Millenium
    • HRTM3301 Fundamentals of Healthcare Hospitality
    • MEDT4301 American Health Care
    • MEDT4302 Health Care Law & Policy
  • Free Electives: 38 credits
    • Minimum of 21 credits in Hospitality or Hospitality related courses (11 credits are required work experience)
    • Work Experience
      • HRTM4283 Work Experience 4
      • HRTM4284 Work Experience 5
      • HRTM4285 Work Experience 6
    • Other Free electives: 17 credits