‘Choose Your Passion’:

ProStart® Students Explore Career Paths at Arkansas Hospitality Summit

With the enticing aromas of barbecue, chicken wings, sausage, shrimp and crab legs filling the exhibition hall at Robinson Center in Little Rock, a passerby might have thought he was stumbling on to a family picnic.

But the purpose of the day was all business—helping young Arkansans to learn more about how they can turn their interest in culinary arts into a rewarding career with outstanding financial rewards.

The Arkansas Hospitality Association (AHA) hosted its first Hospitality Education Summit in Little Rock on October 24, with nearly 200 students and educators from all over Arkansas on hand to visit with recruiters from colleges, universities and post-secondary culinary programs.

In addition, guest speakers offered students and educators advice and guidance on how to get the most out of their education and the ProStart® program, while Chef Gregory Schaub, executive chef for Coach’s Low Country Brands, offered hands-on cooking demonstrations. 

The students are all participants in the National Restaurant Association’s ProStart® program, administered in Arkansas by the AHA thanks to a grant from the Arkansas Department of Workforce Education. The summit was made possible by a contribution from the Give Something Back Foundation, established by Bob and Vicki Carr of Heartland Payment Systems.

 ‘This is what the industry is all about’

The message of the day was clear: There are promising careers available in the food service and hospitality industry for those students willing to work hard and seize the opportunities available to them.

That point was made clearly by keynote speaker Joe Crosby, a retired football coach turned entrepreneur and philanthropist who owns Coach’s Low Country Brands, a line of food products he launched after opening his own restaurant, the T-60 Grill, in Fairplay, S.C., in 2003.

Since then, the T-60 Grill has expanded and Coach’s Low Country Brands has grown to a line of 19 products, including seasonings, marinades, potato chips, prepared meats and more, with sizable wholesale and retail sales.

Crosby noted that, while business owners wanting to start restaurants often face skepticism from bankers who point to high rates of closure in the restaurant industry, he sees food service as a promising business and career path.

“I don’t know what odds you want, but I swear if you counted all the restaurants on the block all around the world, there are more restaurants than any other business in the world,” he said.

That means plentiful jobs for hardworking and well-trained professionals in the food service industry, Crosby said. As an example of the opportunities available to young people, he pointed to the general manager of his own restaurant, who started working for him as a waitress.

“This is what this industry is all about: You can start off as a waitress and you end up running the whole operation,” he said.

To illustrate his commitment to the industry, Crosby offers scholarships through his foundation to offer to students seeking to attend culinary arts schools. In his visit to Arkansas, he and his company donated new burners to each ProStart® program in the state, as well as promising to donate 1,850 of Coach’s Low Country Boil seasoning for the students to sell to raise funds for their programs.

Scholarship and Education Opportunities

Crosby’s message was amplified in a breakfast presentation by Paul Kelly, the director of industry relations for Coach’s Low Country Brands, who offered educators, vocational counselors and admissions representatives a nuts and bolts look at the educational and scholarship opportunities available to students pursuing hospitality careers.

Kelly noted that one of the biggest obstacles faced by some students is resistance from their parents, who may not envision restaurant work as a “respectable” career path. He said that this was due to a limited understanding of the possibilities open to hospitality careers for management and ownership.

“When you own 153 McDonalds, I think that’s pretty respectable, don’t you?” he said.

Moreover, Kelly noted, training in the culinary arts does not limit a student to a life spent in the kitchen, if their ambition and interests lead them elsewhere. For example, large food suppliers have found that young people with culinary training make top sales representatives (“They know how to go into a kitchen and talk to a chef,” he explained). Culinary training can also springboard creative-minded students into lucrative careers in advertising and marketing, kitchen design, software development for restaurants or nutrition science.

Kelly noted that there are virtually unlimited avenues for financing a two- or four-year college education in culinary arts or hospitality management, including scholarships, workplace tuition reimbursement programs and federal grants and loans. In addition, he pointed to often overlooked work opportunities like airlines, country clubs and cruise ships as excellent ways for students to pick up much needed experience and to hone their skills and creativity.

“There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of the ocean on a cruise ship and realizing you left all the Sterno back on the beach,” he said. “What are you going to do? You better figure it out.”

‘These kids have a head start’

Several representatives from culinary education programs at two- and four-year colleges and universities from Arkansas and around the nation offered exhibits on what their programs had to offer and fielded questions from students.

David Yoder, an admissions representative for Johnson and Wales University, a private university with an esteemed culinary arts program (noted alumni include celebrity chefs Emeril Lagasse and Tyler Florence), said that culinary events like the AHA Hospitality Summit are an excellent opportunity for him to meet with students.

“This is a good starting point to us, because it is ProStart® and these kids have a head start,” Yoder said. “If we can help these kids get in the front door with some scholarships, that’s a good thing.”

Robert J. Harrington, who heads the hospitality program at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, said that the Hospitality Summit is a chance to attract high quality students.

“For us it’s important to have a chance to talk to students who are in the ProStart® program in particular, because if they’re going through the program they have a better idea of what to expect in the industry,” he said. “It’s a great win-win for the students and for us as well.”

The students agreed. Susan Pitney and Rachel Staggs, ProStart® students from Russellville, added that the summit gave them a chance to learn more about the educational and career options available to them after completing their certifications.