Hospitality degrees work in a thriving industry

Hospitality schools are growing in popularity as the industry thrives both locally and nationally.

Roosevelt University operates the only master's degree program in hospitality in Illinois, and it says its program will grow about 20 percent this year. It is also expanding the program to branches in China and Greece.

"You can make big money in this business," said Gerald Bober, director of the Manfred Steinfeld School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Roosevelt University.

Northwest suburban Chicago area hotels in 2007 averaged an occupancy rate of 63 percent and room rates rose 7.7 percent, both ahead of national norms, according to a recently released report from the Woodfield Chicago Northwest Convention Bureau, a business association based in Schaumburg.

Roosevelt has a Schaumburg campus but most of the hospitality classes are taught in Chicago to about 80 graduate students. About 350 students attend undergraduate classes on hospitality, Bober said.

An estimated 30 percent of the graduate program consists of international students.

"The program was good for me because it helped me understand the lodging industry in America," said Cristina Gospodin, a sales manager at the Hotel Sofitel Chicago O'Hare in Rosemont and a graduate student aiming to graduate in May.

Gospodin, a native of Bucharest, Romania, said contacts at the school helped her get her job.

The hospitality business in Illinois is a $26 billion a year industry, according to statistics cited by Bober.

Several area community colleges have hospitality classes alongside culinary schools, Bober said, but Roosevelt decided to concentrate on three fields of hospitality studies: hotels and lodging, event and meetings, and food and beverage management.

The largest culinary school in the Great Lakes states is Hoffman Estates-based Career Education's Cooking and Hospitality Institute of Chicago.

It offers hospitality-oriented classes in restaurant management and food and beverage cost controls.

President Lloyd Kirsch said his school is also considering the development of a bachelor's degree in hospitality.

"We have a lot of our students going into management roles," said Kirsch, a veteran of both the hotel and restaurant industries.

In Chicago, Kendall College's Les Roches School of Hospitality Management, affiliated with the Les Roches School of Hotel Management in Bluche, Switzerland, has seen its enrollment rise 150 percent in the last two years.

With 278 students in its hospitality bachelor's degree program, Kendall College is aiming to eventually enroll 1,000 students.

Kendall College, traditionally known for its culinary arts curriculum, now offers marketing, finance, human resources and operations management, according to Jeffrey Catrett, dean of the Les Roches School of Hospitality Management.

Catrett said his school estimates hospitality graduates earn an average $40,000 a year the first year out of school.

Degrees help applicants get better starts in the industry, Bober said.

Delia Suguitan was a real estate paralegal before enrolling in the Roosevelt graduate program. She's now a business development analyst at Schaumburg-based Hostmark Hospitality Group, which manages 35 hotels and also owns hotels. It didn't hurt her that one of her teachers was also a Hostmark executive.

"The program gave me the contacts to get this job," said Suguitan, a native of Hawaii. "And it gave me the training in what it takes to buy and sell hotels."