Local students know their stuff
<p>Amanda Taylor, a senior at Timberlake, answers a question from Engineering Technician Kyle Olivier during a tour of the Coeur d'Alene Resort's pump room Tuesday while on an engineering rotation with other Resort Academy students who recently placed second and the national competition.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - The Coeur d'Alene Resort is their classroom, and its staff are their teachers.
That relationship helped a team of local high school students place second in the nation in a competition hosted earlier this month by the American Hotel and Lodging Association's Educational Institute.
"We learned everything we know here at The Resort," said 18-year-old Lakeland High School senior Cheyenne Lawrie.
Lawrie, and teammates Taylor Patik, 17, Ashley Metcalf, 17, and Amanda Taylor, 18, are all enrolled in The Resort Academy of Lakeland High School, a two-year hospitality and lodging management program provided through a partnership between the Lakeland School District and The Resort.
The students traveled to Orlando, Fla., to compete against teams representing schools in Arkansas, the Bahamas, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington, D.C., and Wyoming.
The only team to outpace The Resort Academy was Guam.
"They won by just a hair," said Taylor, in her second year of The Resort Academy.
The high school hospitality students went head-to-head in real job scenarios. They performed guest room inspections, completed a night audit, found solutions to food and beverage and sales and marketing problems, and planned an event.
The students said they performed well because they had hands-on experience at a four-star resort.
"A lot of other teams don't have that advantage, so they're just working out of a book," said Taylor Patik.
"The people at The Resort welcome you with open arms," Lawrie said.
The students said that in addition to The Resort, they had their high school instructor, Marjorie Tibbits, to thank. Tibbits was instrumental in getting the program, now in its fourth year, up and running.
"It's been such an honor to be partners with The Coeur d'Alene Resort," Tibbits said. "It gives the students the opportunity to work in a professional setting every day."