CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–September 18, 2014. McHenry resident Tina Bruenning is working on a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management, as is her 20-year-old son, Nick. Both are students at Roosevelt University’s Manfred Steinfeld School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, and both do more than just take classes together.
The two, who previously earned certificates together at the College of Lake County as professional chefs, assistant pastry chefs and hospitality supervisors, also are interns for the University’s new Conference Services Department, where they work as a team arranging meetings and events.
“From my perspective they’ve been a huge asset,” said Roosevelt’s Conference Services Director Jodi Daily of the mother and son team responsible for the University’s room rentals, conferences and other events. “It’s like watching a baton race. Each has incredible intuition and can anticipate what the other will be doing, and they have really helped us accomplish a lot in a short period of time.”
Tina Bruenning, who specializes in meetings and events planning, is meticulous, spending hours outside the classroom studying and tending to on-the-job details like keeping things organized and completing paperwork. Her son, Nick, who specializes in food and beverage and wants to be a chef, is much more spontaneous, joking with those who need the University’s conference services and staying up all night to write a paper or to study for a test that is scheduled for early that morning.
“There are ups and downs and times that we bicker,” acknowledged Nick Bruenning, who has been known to say “you know, we’re related” to those who see, and hear, them work together.
Roosevelt Hospitality and Tourism Management Professor Chuck Hamburg, who has had the Bruennings together in class, said it’s difficult not to notice they’re related, given that they have the same last name and frequently came in together for class.
“They didn’t ask for anything special and basically they were separate but equal when they were in my class,” said Hamburg, who has never seen, in three decades of college teaching, a mother and son both working on a bachelor’s degree in hospitality management at the same time at the same institution. “It’s kind of unusual to say the least,” he said.
The younger Bruenning learned about Roosevelt’s Conference Services internship through the hospitality management program. He presented the opportunity to his mother earlier this year as a kind of Mother’s Day gift.
“He sent me an email that said ‘Happy Mother’s Day. I got you an internship,’” said Tina Bruenning, who was choked up as she recalled the incident. “That’s really how we got into this work together.”
The idea for the internship was hatched by William Host, associate professor of hospitality and tourism management whose specialty is meetings and events planning.
“This is an unusually good opportunity for these students, As interns with the University’s new Conference Services program, they are able to start something from scratch,” said Host. “It’s kind of like opening a new hotel or a conference center: They are inventing, creating and developing a program and making policy for how that program will operate,” he said.
Responsible for booking organizations and individuals into rooms over the summer at the University’s Wabash Building student housing and helping to arrange conferences and meetings in University spaces in Chicago and Schaumburg during the academic year, the Bruennings have different goals in mind for what they will do after graduating together in 2015.
Tina is going into events planning, Nick will become a pastry chef. However, there is a plan for the future that could have them ultimately crossing career paths.“My dream is to one day open a bed and breakfast on a beach, and Nick could be the chef,” his mother said.
Source: roosevelt.edu
