When Ellis (Yanyi) Luo was named to the Top 30, she was surprised, proud and flattered with the recognition. “I feel really proud to represent my company, represent my school, represent my race and ethnic background,” she said.
Now, as the university relations and recruiting manager for Marriott International, Luo gets to travel across Canada to share her passion for hospitality and tourism with youth. “I feel like I have a bigger mission, not just recruiting for Marriott, [but] to bring talent back into this industry… showing them that there are different career paths and great opportunities in hospitality. I think that has been really rewarding.”
For Kimberly Crabtree, a guest speaker in one of Chris Gibbs’ first year HTH 102 Service and Professionalism classes stuck with her through her career. “We had a gentleman come into the class who said whenever you see people working in housekeeping, that means they’re hard workers,” she explained. “I wanted to get that on my resume, to get some life experience.”
So, for one of her first jobs while still a student at the Ted Rogers School, Crabtree went to the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, to work in the rooms division, in housekeeping, where she spent 10 months. Following that, she worked at the Fairmont Royal York in the Library Bar and at the Ritz-Carlton.
“The hotel industry is a very demanding one,” Crabtree said. “It’s a 24-hour operation, so I was working a lot then going to school to finish things, and then doing it all over again.”
She graduated in 2019 with a full-time job which led her to where she is today, the director of events at Oretta Hospitality Inc.