141 – Hospitality Campus Crawl: Florida International University

Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

In this inaugural episode of the TMG Hospitality Campus Crawl series, the Suite Spot takes a trip down to Miami to visit the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management at Florida International University to meet with the Dean of the School, Dr. Michael Cheng.

Host Ryan Embree sits down with Dr. Cheng to discuss the high-ranking academic institution and how it is preparing the next generation of elite hospitality professionals.

Tune in now!

Episode Transcript
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Ryan Embree:
Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check-in and we check out what’s trending in hotel marketing. I’m your host, Ryan Embree. Hello Everyone. Welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree. We are here in Miami, Florida, south Florida, introducing a brand new podcast series. We’re so excited. This is TMGs Hospitality Campus Crawl, and we are here at our first stop at FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. And with me today I have Dr. Michael Cheng, Dean of the School. Thank you Dr. Cheng, for being with me.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
My pleasure. Thank you so much for inviting me. I’m very excited.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, we’re very excited to be on here. This is an intro into a brand new series, a summer series that hopefully we are gonna be touring all around the state of Florida, the great state of Florida, where tourism, as we know, is very, very important to our economy. And what you and your team are doing over here, Dr. Cheng, is very important because you’re creating the next generation of hospitality workers and students out there. But before we get into that, this is your first time on the Suite Spot. So welcome. We’re gonna be talking a lot about hospitality journeys in this and the paths that are provided for hospitality students right now. But share a little bit about your story, your journey in hospitality, and what led you to FI’Us, Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
Sure. Thank you, Ryan. Yeah, so the truth is, how I got here is spring break, literally my wife and I, came down for spring break one year same year that we ended up moving down here, which was 2014. And we go, man, this is March. And the world is beautiful. We should like relocate. We were living in the Midwest at that time. Yeah, we were living in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and had been in the Midwest for oh boy like 23 years. Yeah. So it’s been quite a while. But coming down here, the weather was very nice, but really I’m an international student. I was born and raised in Malaysia and came here to the US to study and enrolled at the University of Nebraska Lincoln. And my first major was not hospitality, it was MIS And I quickly realized that I’m more of a people person and less of a computer desk person. So I changed major, followed a bunch of friends who said “Hey, let’s try business.” So I did business for another semester, didn’t like it because I couldn’t find a direction. And then my supervisor at that point because I was working in the residence of food service, say, you should look at hospitality, I think you might be good at it. So I said, what is hospitality? Right. And went over and met the professor and goes, well, you know, there’s restaurants, there’s hotels, there’s events, and you work in food service, anything you want, what you’re doing right now is hospitality. I said, okay. I tried it, I loved it. And I found, I think I found my niche, finished my bachelor’s, and she asked me to come for my masters. So I did, became a graduate assistant. And then I started working in the industry for three years as a food service manager. And really discovered, man, everything is true. This is the industry that you get to eat for free. Yeah, never had to pay for lunch, you know, not too bad, which is very nice. At that point, then I kind of got a little bored with what I was doing. So started looking around and found that a community college metropolitan community college at Mond, Nebraska had a position and they were looking for somebody to come in and basically run the kitchens. So I applied for that job, and that was my first floor in higher education. I didn’t start teaching right away because that was not the plan. The plan was to, you know, do what I love, which is hospitality. But there was one semester, like maybe two years in, and they were short, or one of the faculty members couldn’t teach a class, so they were looking for somebody last minute. So they asked me if I would be willing to teach an introduction to culinary arts class. I’m like, sure, how hard can it be? Right?. And there was only nine students in it anyways, a small class. I couldn’t cancel, it was too late. And they say, we’ll guide you. Here’s the syllabus, here’s the content. Week by week before you teach a class. I go through it with you. This is the faculty talking to me, and then we’ll prep you for the class of that week. I say, well, great. So you know what I did the first week of class, I forgot I had class. I was late in my own first class. And I got there like 30 minutes later and they go where were you? I’m like I’m sorry brand new instructor, online stayed with me and finished with me. So I was thankful for that one. It was during the time at a metro community college that the faculty say, you should go to this conference and see what they are about. And it’s called Research Chefs Association Conference. So I went and I found out there’s a very nice intersection between culinary arts and food science and their collegeology. I came back, I was all excited about it, and then the guys who ran the RCA, the Research Chefs Association said we’re looking for a school to develop this brand new discipline. Can you help us? Like, sure, we have culinary arts, it’s a culinary program, and my alma mater has food science. I was like, we combine the two. So I created a curriculum for ocology that was back in 2000. Today it’s in use in over 12 different schools internationally. But what really got me the opportunity to move on in my career was because I created a curriculum and my next employer, which is Southwest Minnesota State University, they were looking for somebody to launch a ology program. So they reached to ask me if I was interested. Of course, I said, yes, you know, here’s an opportunity to actually implement a curriculum that you develop in action. So I said, yes, took the job. And the president, they also said, well, you have a hospitality background, so why don’t you do both ology and hospitality, and of course foolishly I said yes. So there I was running a program creating from scratch, two different programs, and because of that opportunity, I was able to get tenure at Southwest Minnesota State University and became the full professor there. And then and I was serious about whole spring break. My wife and I came and we said, this is gorgeous weather. You know, we should look around here. That same year I was at a conference with hospitality educators and I overheard this group of guys talking about food science, and that got my attention. So I stuck my head into the conversation, asked them why were they talking about food science? And they go, well, you know, we’re the chaplain School hospitality and tourism management at Florida International University. And I said, where’s that in Miami? So my eyes lit up. So suddenly Miami comes up again in the same year, literally within a couple months. And this was the conference. So then I applied for the job, came down here and that was it. Literally three years later I was asked to become the interim dean, and then that was at the end of 2017. So I’ve been in the dean’s role since I guess end of 2017, almost seven years now.

Ryan Embree:
Well, your story it’s an incredible journey, but it’s common in that a lot of the hospitality leaders I talk to on this podcast, they just kind of happen to fall into the industry pretty much. And I think that’s why this series and this school is so important because we wanna change the narrative to say that I wanna get into hospitality. There’s a career for me here, and we stop students from falling into an industry and finding that industry and saying, this is where I wanna start my career. Now, I don’t know if I’ve had anyone that’s fallen into two separate careers with hospitality and teaching.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
You know, the teaching thing wasn’t intentional, it just happened by luck. And then you find that you, you know, you have a knack for it, you love it. And I guess what I really like about teaching is I get to see a person develop. You know, a young adult able to gain new skills and develop and see a mature, and then after that they remember you. It’s so rewarding.

Ryan Embree:
No, I bet. And that’s what we’re gonna talk about today. You know, I had the opportunity to get a tour of this incredible campus, the award-winning curriculum that you’re putting, the experiences, share a little bit about the history of this school, which it’s a lot older than than I originally thought when I heard, and what kind of makes it unique from other hospitality programs?

Dr. Michael Cheng:
So FIU is I guess, relatively young in terms of large institutions, you know? We’re the fifth largest university in the country, and we opened in 1972, so we’re 52 years old today. And the hospitality school opened at the same time, FIU opened. So we are one of the five original academic units that opened in the state of Florida in Miami, actually back in 1972. We were awarded a school distinction in 1978, and today we’re the second largest hospitality school in whole country. We graduate anywhere between 700 to 800 students a year. We also graduate the most diverse graduates in whole country because of population here in South Miami, in South Florida. But also we graduated the most Blacks and Hispanic students with a degree in hospitality management than anybody else. So we’re really proud of our diversity and located in Miami. We’re very fortunate to have a very strong tourism industry down here. But I think more importantly is that FIU and the Chaplin School, were one of the only South Beach Wine and Food Festival in the whole country. Actually in the whole world, probably the most successful one, which to date in its 23 year history, has generated over $40 million in proceeds and scholarships for our students. So it’s been very successful, has certainly made a huge difference in the experience that our students get here while they’re at the Chaplin school. Because of that too, we’re able to recruit talented faculty to come here to Miami as well. On top of that, because of our location and our, our connection with the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, which coincidentally actually started here on campus, our wine faculty where we are recording this podcast right now, created the original South Beach Wine Food Festival. It was called the Florida Extravaganza. And we did it for one day wine food pairing here on campus. And then from there on it just grew. Today it attracts 65,000 guests over a four day period. It’s incredible. But what I was saying is the academic programming here also mirrors the landscape here in South Florida. So we have the only bachelor of arts in global sustainable tourism, but the only one in hospitality school offers undergraduate degree in that prepare students for a variety of different careers with sustainability as offices and sometimes even directors. But we also offer a masses track in cruise lines operations management, the only one in the whole country as well. And then very unique to us because of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. We have a mega event management track within a master’s program. And I’m very proud of the fact that we award so much scholarship to our students every year. Literally on average, over $1 million is awarded to, to a chaplain school student just from the school itself every year.

Ryan Embree:
That’s fantastic. And I’m sure that money is creating opportunities for students and sending them down the path of a hospitality career and giving them even a shot at that. So, very cool to see and innovative to hear that, you know, you have a global sustainable tourism degree, something that we talk to hospitality leaders all about. We’re talking about how corporations, businesses in the future, they might not be looking at maybe monetary budgets, could be looking at green budgets and sustainability budgets. So you’re setting your students up for kind of the future of hospitality there. And then that master’s degree in cruise line operations, as you said, Miami, such a hub there. So talk about some of these partnership networks that you’ve been able to create over here. Obviously you have the, I saw some learning experiences with sponsorship from Bacardi. Why are these relationships so vital for your program success? And how, how does this really kickstart students’ careers and hospitality with these partnerships?

Dr. Michael Cheng:
Sure. So we really believe in training our students in preparing them as best as we can for the real world. So, as much as possible, we’re always gonna bring in guest lectures from industry as well as we look for faculty members when we hire them to have prior industry experience. So we wanna make sure that students are getting information that’s current and relevant. That’s why we lean so much on our industry partners so they can bring in that reality into the classroom itself. We focus a lot on experience as well, in terms of every single student who graduate from the Chaplin School need to complete a 300 hour management internship, which prepares them for the leadership position. But on top of that, they also have to have completed 800 hours of work experience prior to graduation. That means working in the hospitality industry full-time every summer from the first year to the year you graduate. So that’s a lot of work experience when they bring in when they graduate from the school here. On top of that, one of the things we are very proud of is our unique curriculum. You know, I mentioned some earlier, but about five years ago, we created a way to be able to get information into students’ hands sooner as fast as we can. That’s relevant and current. Your typical curriculum change process takes about a year to go through the whole process at a university. And what we did was created a show a course that’s called Programming on Demand. And then we offer four or five different sections of it each semester. And each one of those sections is a different content. So it’s a one credit hour class. We’ll take ’em on like behind the scenes tours in restaurants, we’ll take ’em to leadership conferences, to the National Restaurant Show take ’em on trips to a distillery. So they’re learning all the while from the real world. So we’re proud of that one. On top of that, two, we have a very robust study abroad program. I think the best time to gain experience is while a college student, we have this thing that we’ve been doing for about 10 years now, is called Hospitality at Sea. And every year during the summer, right at the end of the spring semester, between 60 to 80 students sign up for either a three credit class or six credit class and go on a two week journey transatlantic ship, typically across the sea, and then they end up in Europe someplace, and then they hop around for a little bit. It’s just a great experience. So we really are very proud of the fact that our students get that much variety and different experiences while they’re here.

Ryan Embree:
Well, listen, I was a hospitality student graduate as well, and maybe people hearing this might think, well, they’re going to school. Why do they need those work hours? Those work hours are setting students up for success connections within our industry. How many times have you heard, a student say, Hey, I’m working for this organization, and the next thing they know when they graduate, they have a full-time job, or they have a connection that sets them up for, for their career and journey. So, those things were so vital in my career to even try out spaces. As you talked about, our hospitality is so vast from cruise lines to F&B hotels, events, everything. So this gives you a little taste of everything. So that you can find really where your passion lines and your niche lines. But at the end of the day, it’s all of that foundation of people serving people and hospitality, which is, you know, why me and you probably love the industry that we’re in right now.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
And we see the same thing with our industry partners too. You know, they really do want to give back. Like for instance, we have the only Bacardi Center of Excellence in partnership with Bacardi North America, where they funded the creation of this. And the intention is to give back. Students get scholarships, we have an end adult professorship. We’ve been able to create this learning platform that’s available to anybody across whole world for free. And Bacardi wants to be able to improve the industry.

Ryan Embree:
It’s a win-win. It’s super smart moves. You mentioned the location. I wanna talk about that a little bit more, Miami, right? I mean, I feel like if you were starting a hospitality school and you could pick anywhere, no place else, right?Miami’s probably pretty perfect. Talk about that role when maybe students are looking, prospective students are looking at hospitality schools and you’re able to say, Hey, we are in Miami. We can offer you all of this. What role does that play?

Dr. Michael Cheng:
I think where the school is located is a major factor in the students or the potential students’ choice of where they want to go. For me, Miami is like the hub, you know, quite honestly, you got how many episodes of how many versions of Bad Boys were shot in Miami. So they keep coming back for that one, but Miami is the gateway to the Americas. We’ve heard that. You know 38% of our student population here, the Chaplins who come from the Caribbean South or Central America. We also see Miami continue to grow. It’s grown from back in the eighties to today. It’s quite different, but a lot of multinational global companies have moved into Miami. Now, Citadel moved the headquarters here. The other one is SH Hotels, which owns the one hotel and all a string, I mean a line of sustainable hotels. And then there’s Highgate Hospitality who probably manages, is the country’s second largest hotel management firm. They moved here as well. And then you notice too, that the food scene here is incredible. Two years ago we got the Michelin Stars coming in here, and now it’s like everybody wants to open up the famous restaurant here. And you got major food group opening a whole bunch of restaurants here. Same thing with group hospitality. As I mentioned earlier, Miami is also the home of the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. Nowhere else can you go for that kinda experience. We also host the FIFA World Cup, the F1, the Ultra Music Festival, and we are the Cruise capital of the world. So I think where we’re at in itself and the opportunities that provides to students who are interested in hospitality is incredible. It’s so immense. You can find just about anything you want right here in Miami.

Ryan Embree:
That’s the beauty of hospitality too, is we’re all travelers, right? And we’re all diners. We’re all people that like to go to events. So not only are you studying in a place that has all of these incredible places to eat and stay and attend, you get to be a part of that and potentially give back to it, you know? And you give tons of opportunities for students to do that.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
And there’s no state taxes in Florida. Which is a bonus.

Ryan Embree:
That is very important as well.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
I mentioned our gateway to the Americas, I mean, we have a global, major international airport that can get you any place you want in the whole world. On top of that too, the cultural diversity that we have here in South Florida, in Miami in particular, you’re seeing so many residents of Miami who grew up in other countries. So it’s just, and not only does it bring diversity into your lives, but also the talent that they bring along with it. So now you got a great business ecosystem, cultural diversity, a strong pool of talent, no state taxes. Beautiful weather and beaches.

Ryan Embree:
There’s no question to why it has such a rich history down here and how impactful it is. Let’s talk about alumni. Any school, alumni are important and have an impact. Discuss the significance of FIU alumni and you have some initiatives that you do to get to foster these strong relationships with your alumni.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
So FIU, the Chaplin School too, we are 52 years old today, and the university itself has over, I think 325,000 alumni. The school itself, we have roughly 20,000 alumni worldwide. And as I look at where our alumni are today and where they came from, I can see trends back in the seventies and eighties as we were new. Then we got a lot of alumni who came from the East coast, the northeast coast in particular. And then we, during the eighties, we had a lot who came from Europe. And then Europe’s education system developed. And now they offer a lot of competitive options there. So that the amount for students from Europe has kind of slowed down. And then we opened a campus in China in the nineties. And from then on, you know, we got a lot of Asian international students coming there. But, so you can see that our students do come from all across the world, and some have made major gifts. And when you ask them why they made major gifts towards the program, towards the school, it’s because of the experience they had here. So, one in particular, John McKibbon, he graduated in 1975 and he put in a large amount of money to create the McKibbon alumni experience. He wanted students today to have the same kind of experience that he had when he was a student here. And that’s what we are very proud of, making sure that our students get individualized personal attention. And then also we have other alumni such as the host and I think he’s also the founder for Beyond the Plate, Andrew Kaplan. So he got his start here as a student while he was volunteering at the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. And he met Rachel Ray. And the reason why he met Rachel Ray is because he was wearing a T-shirt that said something like avocado, just one word. And he caught her attention. So that’s how the connection began in person. He was her chief of staff. And then he move on, and now he’s running this, he still runs her foundation, I believe, but he has his own podcast now, which is very, very popular too. So about five years ago we saw that as alumni body continue to grow, and it’s more and more of them, that we needed to make sure that we continue to excite our current generation of students. So the best way to excite somebody who’s younger is to bring somebody about the same age as them. That’s why we created what’s called the Rising Star Award. And that was intended to honor alumni who have quite a significant level of success in their careers and who will continue to climb up the ladder, on upward trajectory. It will help inspire those alumni as well as the current students, but also encourage them to keep striving for more.

Ryan Embree:
Well, that’s what I was gonna say. We walked in and saw this just giant wall of all these faces and awards. And it’s so cool to be able to kind of see, you know, those pathways and success stories, especially for a younger person to say, Hey, listen, in 20, 30 years, you know, it could be you. This could be you. You could be on this wall or you could be giving back to the university. Those, I think, are the strongest testaments. You know, obviously we’re gonna talk about some of the, the awards that the curriculum has been given. But I think some of the strongest testaments of alumni coming in and talking about their experience giving back shows that you’re doing something right.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
The other unintended consequence of having the wall you mentioned is, it shows the current students the breadth of possibilities within the hospitality industry. So you’re not just customer service, you could be in revenue management, you could be in catering, you could be in real estate development. So there’s all kinds of options that are available in the industry.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, absolutely. And with all of those options, you provide a lot of unique learning experiences and programs. Some you’ve spoke to already, but, you know, talk to some of the resources offered to students here at the Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism, you know, academic advisors, hospitality, venue tours, programming on demand. Speak a little bit more to that and how that integrates into learning here.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
Well, I think one of the benefits that we have is we are on a campus that’s just paradise. You know, it’s the Biscayne Bay campus. But I think you know, the Biscayne Bay Campus is paradise for sure. And the entire school hospitality is located here. So we’re self-contained. We have our own advisors recruiting career services. And what that means is you don’t have to wait, you know, so you don’t have to wait to talk to somebody at, at the central campus or at the main campus. You need advising, you just go downstairs and you find on any given date is at least two advisors out of four waiting for you. We also offer online services as well to help ’em. So if they, they cannot be on campus. And then I think the other big benefit is the personalized attention. So, you know, we have 1200 students, second largest, but it’s like every advisor knows every student. So anytime I’m looking for somebody, I say, Hey, do we have somebody who missed this criteria for either scholarship award or for volunteer opportunity? They say yes, and they gimme a name. We reached out and they, they’re all in. So that’s really refreshing. And I also like that we we’re able to basically provide everything they need in one location, but we also do a lot to bring them in too. So we do a lot of student engagement opportunities or activities, I guess, such as the welcome back bash. We do a graduation celebration for them, a freshman painting ceremony. So then we make sure that our faculty and staff are introduced to them early on and create the relationship. The other thing that we do different too, is we like our students and also maybe potential non-students yet to know who we are. So we have our advisors and career counselors teaching these freshman orientation classes as well as the career pathway classes. So they know, oh, here’s hospitality. You know, I didn’t have to change major twice like I did to describe hospitality. I was in a class and I learned about it. So those are, you know, what’s great for our school here, what makes us different too.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, one of the bigger trends that we’re noticing, and as we talk to hotel leaders specifically, is, is personalization and how that’s becoming a more intricate part of hospitality and hoteliers lives. But the same applies, I would imagine, to students and, and personalization and their journey, their academic journey here. So being able to provide resources, stories, pathways for them really helps them get their career started on the right foot. And certainly all the work that you’ve been doing is paid off. I mean, I want to get, make sure I get these stats right. Ranked in the world’s top 1% by QS World University Rankings, #1 US online hospitality program as the Dean Dr. Cheng, what do these recognitions mean to you and how do you use them to impact enrollment?

Dr. Michael Cheng:
Well, I would say first we’re doing something right. . So there are only two rankings in the whole world for hospitality and tourism and QS World University Rankings is one of ’em, when they first started looking at hospitality programs back in 2017, we were unranked, we, we didn’t even make the cut. We’re like not on the map kind of thing. But since then you know, we’ve made a considered effort and we first showed up on at number 50 in 2018. And then after that we progressively climbed each year. And today we are number 31 in the whole world. But when you look among US public universities, we’re number six. So now it’s back to like 2017. You’re not even a known entity today in 2024. And now you’re number six in among US public universities in the country. So that has really helped us with our recruitment, not just students, but also with faculty, like I mentioned earlier. They wanna be with the best. And on top of that too, our location in Miami where all these major employers are is also help us with placement, job placement. So now you got employers coming to us saying, Hey, we know you’re a good school. You’re rank highly, we love to hire students. We also very diverse, which is another positive that employers are looking for. So I mentioned recruiting for faculty. Also when you’re ranked consistently and employers do track it, they can tell that you are doing something right, which means you have systems in place of quality control. So they trust us in what we’re doing. They continue to refer other employers and at the end it’s great for the students. We know we’re training the next generation of students. We know we need them to have information, knowledge that’s current and relevant, but we also need to know that they’re gonna be grabbed by the by the employer at the moment they graduate.

Ryan Embree:
Absolutely. I mean, they are representative of the university. So if you can have these pathways and you know, it’s a win-win for everyone. I mean, these organizations and corporations are looking for top ranked universities. And if you’re right there, it’s kind of that snowball effect that you talked about. So, and then one of the things that is so unique, we’ve talked, we’ve mentioned it multiple times, but the South Beach Wine & Food Festival, major national event gives hands-on F&B experience to your students, put us in the morning of this incredible event, the start of it. Walk us through that experience.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
I can get really descriptive, right. I do remember my first time going to the South Beach Wine & Food Festival. That was in 2015 when I first got here. I had never eaten so many burgers before in my life. So I mean that was the Burger Bash. And then it was not just the amount of food that you could try, but also for one ticket price, the amount of alcohol you consume. So you can be really careful. And then you also have all these celebrities. So I remember the first day going, wait, there’s Giada, she’s like my favorite food networks chef. You know, wait, wait, this’s Rachel Ray. And this is Bobby Flay. I was like, oh my God, where am I?

Ryan Embree:
So who’s who.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
Exactly. So it really is the only event where our student volunteers, by the way, 1500 of the student volunteers all come from FIU. They can really get up close and personal with celebrity chefs. And I remember hearing a story from one of my faculty members who was working the night event. It goes, yeah. You know Chef Guy Fieri just came by, said hi to the students, took much selfies with him. And then on top of that he was feeling generous and gave ’em money. I’m like, what? Chef Fieri just paid our students. Give ’em a tip. I mean, that’s incredible. Yeah, but it’s not all just Food Network Chef. We also have other celebrities that who come to, because you’re seeing so many more spirit brands that are celebrity backed. And so Maluma launches, I think it was tequila last year. And then I remember Walking Dead Stars, Brian Cranston and, and Aaron Paul launching their brand. And it was kind of funny, I was at event, and I don’t watch Walking Dead, I don’t watch it. So I had no idea who these two guys were. And he walked up to me and Aaron goes, hi, I’m Aaron. I was like, oh, hi, I’m Michael. I had zero idea there. Afterwards somebody say, Hey, that’s Walking Dead. You wanna take a picture?

Ryan Embree:
You could just run into celebrities at this event. And Well, that’s incredible. I mean, like I said, I’d love to to go, but for those, you know, that haven’t hearing a firsthand account I think is important.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
Let me add on too. So there’s the nice consumer facing part, but there’s also the behind the scenes major portion. This festival, there’s an entire team of like 11 full-time staff that work on it year round. And we start recruiting for student volunteers in September and we start getting them interviewed and placed in proper positions. And then they go to training, they go to an orientation, and then they are like on the week of the festival working. Like seriously. Yeah. I mean, it’s great experience. They participate in anything from marketing to culinary prep, to staffing, to logistics event preparation. And these are all leadership skills, you know? So they’re getting hands on experience. They’re getting a scholarship on top of that. But again, this incredible networking and leadership skills that is gonna make difference.

Ryan Embree:
Well, it’s a big part of, you know,we went on a tour before doing this podcast, and you see signage for it all over. You see the history of the event signatures, pictures everywhere. So it’s clearly just a huge piece of the school and everything that you do. And as you mentioned the numbers, it gives so much back to the students as well. So it’s a great cause for it. And speaking of that, you know, let’s talk about the available hospitality exclusive scholarships that you and your team do. Anything from that festival to donors, that’s a big part of giving students an opportunity to get in the hospitality in the first place that otherwise wouldn’t.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
Absolutely. So I myself am a product of a scholarship. Now, if my graduate professor, actually my major professor when I was finishing my undergraduate didn’t offer me a graduate assistantship. I would not have completed a master’s degree and I’d be probably working in the kitchen someplace.

Ryan Embree:
Yeah, you’re you’re walking testament to it right there.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
Exactly. So, I understand the value of a scholarship and what it does to a person’s life. The festival raises every year between 1.5 to $2 million in scholarship proceeds back to the school. I make sure that the majority of it goes to the students. Because we all know that scholarships can remove barriers to success, don’t have to worry about getting to the next shift, don’t have to worry about housing food ’cause it just helps them. And you get more time to concentrate on your studies. When you do that, students really appreciate it. And, but they also then start to think further. So expand their mind. Like, you know, if there’s less to worry about getting concentrate on my studies, maybe I should think about doing a master’s. So to get into a four plus one program, which then gives them another leg up in industry. So we offer a bunch of different scholarships that helps remove those barriers. Like one that’s called Last Mile scholarship. Many times we come across students and they go, and I’m not registered for the last three credits ’cause then I gotta work. So we say, we’ll cover the cost of your three credits. Here, if it’s in state $700, we’ll cover the cost of it. We also have emergency funds. So very seldom do we get students who, if they’re not in a real emergency, will come to us and go, you know, I just can’t make the rent this money. Is there any scholarship that I can apply for? And we’re like, how much is it? If it’s $1,500 here, we’ll give you a scholarship. Cover that right up. And it’s because South Beach Wine & Food Festival made that possible for our students, removes those incredible barriers.

Ryan Embree:
It’s so incredible. And like you said, without those, those stresses, then you can focus on your education and could put you in a position for success is what, what we’re trying to do and how fitting is it in an industry where it’s people serving people, hospitality, that we’re able to do something like that and, and even just furthers our industry. So very, very cool.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
I would add to, when I was an undergraduate student, my major professor also told me I should go to conference. And they said, well, we’re taking a van. You wanna join us to the National Restaurant Show from Lincoln, Nebraska to Chicago, Illinois. That’s a good 10 hour drive, I think. I’m like, sure, why not? And I found so much value in that. So I really encourage our students, if they get the opportunity to go to conference, they should do it and we’ll give ’em a scholarship to cover it. So they get this hands-on experience, they get to travel. Back in April, I took a group of students to Oaxaca and Mexico where we learn all about AGA and as well as Oaxacan food, which is incredible journey.

Ryan Embree:
It’s so cool. Those experiences, they’re all over our industry. And again, it’s such a great industry. That experience, I’m sure with the students was something that they’ll never forget, but it’s also expanding and exposing them to, you know, a path that they could potentially go down. So as we wrap up here, you know, Dr. Cheng, Dean, you know, what’s, what’s your vision for FIU’s, Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism moving forward?

Dr. Michael Cheng:
Well, I’m by nature a very competitive person.

Ryan Embree:
Okay. I think I know where this is going.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
That reason, I need my metrics. And as plus I know what I’m measuring myself against, then I know what goalposts what else I gotta move. So my goal is always to be the best. You know, I’m just competitive in nature. And five years ago I set a vision that we were going to transform hospitality and tourism one learner at a time for a lifetime. Our intention was to make a difference in their lives. Either through education, through scholarship, through opportunities, experience, whatever it is. And we’ve been very successful at that. And we will continue to do so as we prepare the next generation of students with the pandemic. We’ve learned, some habits have changed. So the new learned behaviors, new expectations, the whole concept of remote work and flexible time is very important to them now. So we have to make adjustments of what our vision is. And then on top of that, you have technology and AI driving the industry as well. So those are factors you have to consider. You have as well as economic pressures. So inflation is a big issue for a lot of business owners. So we’re currently working with my executive advisory board and we’ll be having workshops with our faculty and staff to create what I call Vision 2030. We need to take all the learnings we have in the last five years, apply to these factors in it, and then figure out how can we continue to deliver the best experience for our students, for our faculty, for our staff, and provide knowledge that’s current and that’s relevant. And at the same time provide it in ways that they wanted, whether they want it in online, they want it on demand, they want it in person, and then in what format, right. Whether it’s a fast on demand, or is it a longer multi-week type of workshop. So those are kind of things we have to figure out. But we we’re very excited for the workshop that’s coming up in September with the faculty staff and as well as with my advisory.

Ryan Embree:
It’s so fast changing to things that maybe would change over the course of 10 years in hospitality now are changing at a rapid pace. So you certainly have the foundation there, Dr. Cheng with you and, and your school here and everything that you’ve put in place to adjust to those fast moving needs for hospitality and the students that you’re teaching and putting out there into our industry. So, as someone that speaks to hospitality hotel leaders where we have this in what has really been a historic staffing shortage right now. To be able to talk to a leader that’s educating the next generation of hospitality workers. Thank you for all the work you and your team are doing. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today? We covered it all.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
If you are considering hospitality, don’t consider it. Just do it. You know, you have to experience it. I had no idea what it was and I changed my major, never looked back. I mean, it’s just been a great ride. You know, it’s a dynamic industry. It’s very exciting. You get to travel, you get to see the world and eat a whole bunch of different foods. And, you know, you get to create lifelong friendships, you know, and really hospitality at the end of the day is not a product. It’s the experience and how we create the experience matters. Right? And the experience could be delivered through service. It could be delivered through AI technology. Whether it’s just a simple good eye contact with a guest and nodding and smiling at them. Those are kind of experiences that matter. And that’s why we love, and I believe all of you love hospitality.

Ryan Embree:
Amazing food and amazing places and experiences shouldn’t be really a hard sell. So thank you Dr. Cheng for hosting the Suite Spot here at your beautiful Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism. We will continue to watch, hopefully continue to see you climb those rankings, but thank you for, for hosting us here. And thank you for joining the Suite Spot.

Dr. Michael Cheng:
My pleasure. Thank you so much.

Ryan Embree:
Alright. Thank you all for listening and we’ll talk to you next time. To join our loyalty program, be sure to subscribe and give us a five star rating on iTunes. Suite Spot is produced by Travel Media Group. Our editor is Brandon Bell with Cover Art by Bary Gordon. I’m your host Ryan Embree, and we hope you enjoyed your stay.