Hello everyone!
I hope if you’re reading this that you are well, staying healthy, and doing your best to thrive in these challenging times. In this newsletter I wanted to share a positive observation with everyone. It becomes a little clearer every day that the events over the last year and a half have really changed the hospitality industry, and I see it continuing to change as we figure out new ways to overcome the obstacles laid before us. It’s been challenging here at the school, and I can’t even begin to imagine how challenging it’s been for everyone out there.
But there is something I’ve noticed lately at the school: every week we have several employers coming to campus to recruit our students, and more and more I’ve noticed that the people coming to our campus to recruit ARE our former students! Let me tell you, there are few things in this world that make me more proud than to see the familiar face of a past student come back to campus as an industry success story. To know that you were here once, and then you left, and you kept grinding, and you persevered, and now you’re back to hire someone sitting in the same seat you did…I just think that’s awesome. It’s full circle.
And it shows me that our students are making it, and they’re succeeding, and they’re sticking with it, and they’re overcoming huge obstacles, and they’re going to be part of the change…part of the next evolution of our industry, whatever that may look like. Now, for any naysayers out there, I know this isn’t always the case, and every student can’t be a success story, and it doesn’t work out for everyone. But it can. And it does for some. And that’s motivation enough for all of us here to keep doing what we’re doing.
“Thank you” for the continued inspiration.
Chef Christopher Wolf, ccc, cce, csw, cpi
Arizona Culinary Institute, Executive Chef