Students to job shadow at Crowne Plaza Resort

High school students of the Trading Up START Hospitality program through the Northern Marianas Technical Institute and the Island Training Solutions take part in the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan’s IHG Academy Program job shadowing orientation and hotel tour on Wednesday afternoon. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

High school students who will be participating in the Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan’s IHG Academy program had an orientation and tour of the property last Wednesday afternoon as a prelude to their job shadowing tasks at the hotel.

A total of 18 high school students from Saipan Southern High School (3), Marianas High School (15), and Kagman High School (3), along with Northern Marianas Technical Institute’s Ben Babauta, Hannah Blanco of Island Training Solutions, and SSHS ITS instructor Alyona Gersonde, attended the hotel’s orientation at the Azucena Room.

Later, the students were divided into groups for an extensive tour of the hotel’s rooms, food and beverage outlets, kid’s club and tennis court, and fitness center and swimming pools.

The students are participants in the Trading Up START Hospitality program, which is part of a memorandum of understanding among Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan, NMTech, and ITS.

In the orientation led by Robert Coates, general manager of the hotel, alongside the area human resources director, it gave the students a glimpse on the workplace areas and their future assignments. The main objective is to entice the young students to join and build their careers in the hospitality and tourism industry, which Saipan’s economy is dependent on.

The orientation included the history of IHG, what the IHG Academy Shadowing/Resort Exposure Program is, what products, services, and facilities the resort offers, followed by a tour of the hotel.

When asked how the orientation and tour went for the students, Blanco said, “I believe [the students] are ready. I was impressed with their timeliness and how they dressed in their business casual [attire].”

“I know they have been preparing for this in their Trading Up elective classes at school and now they get to experience it firsthand. What’s great about Crowne Plaza Resort is that they are allowing the students to rotate to different departments each day so that they can see where their interests are within the resort,” she said.

Samantha Calub, a senior at MHS, said that what she learned during the orientation “was really interesting because they have a lot of [hotel] brands that they branched out to. The excitement of working here is pretty high since I’ve seen some of the rooms and it’s really nice. Some of the workers I’ve met are really nice people—especially the GM. I think it’s going to be interesting working in F&B and housekeeping.”