Sitting with a Student

Rachel-Felicia Glenn

Tell us what got you into the world of hospitality.

So I'm from an area of New York called the Catskills. But it's nicknamed the Borscht Belt because historically it's an area where many Jewish immigrants from Europe would go and spend their summer holidays before it was possible for them to go back to their home countries. And so this area was filled with huge resorts, and my grandparents worked in them. And my grandfather was the music director for many of these resorts, so he would spend his summers going from one hotel to another and doing the composition and playing piano for the resorts. So growing up, my grandparents were huge advocates to keep tourism alive in the area. But as well, really specific with my grandfather, he tried to teach my brother and I piano. My brother is an incredible piano player, and I am terrible. But one of the ways that he wanted to inspire us to learn piano was to tell us all these stories about his time in the hotels and all these adventures that he would have and people he would meet, so there's a lot of other things that led to me getting into hospitality. Which, I think that was the first spark.

So you worked in hospitality before coming to EHL. Can you tell us a bit more about your experience becoming an EHL student while having already worked for a couple of years, So I worked and did two years of community college to get my associate's degree in the US. I was staying in Hawaii, and I realized that just meeting a bunch of different professionals in hospitality was something I was interested in. But I wanted to be sure before I so I worked and did two years of community college to get my associate's degree in the US. I was staying in Hawaii, and I realized that just meeting a bunch of different professionals in hospitality was something I was interested in. But I wanted to be sure before Committing to a four-year degree and just a ton of different things shifting in my life. So I decided to Ithaca, New York. I was able to enroll very quickly within a month of deciding I wanted to study hospitality at a community college. And at the same time, I was able to get a summer job in guest service where I was able to move up into management, and then as I was studying hospitality, I realized I just wanted to do it firsthand. And so, I just started applying to any hotel in the area. I got a job as a front desk agent and worked my way up to managing the front office, the front desk, and the bistro. Which wasn't fancy at all. I mean threestar hotel and not probably what EHL people have in mind when we think of hotels and hospitality. But it was my first experience, and it was extremely practical. And I guess that's the best way to describe it was practical because it was learning the rooms division in the morning, going to my classes, and then that evening having to run the front desk and seeing how everything was applied. And so that for me was super confirming that I did want to study hospitality, and then I wanted to commit to it. But I also was very aware of the practicality, maybe how I was losing out on, like the opportunity to educate myself more because I was already learning what I saw on the job and wanted to expand on that. And living in Ithaca and having an outstanding hospitality school for reference right in front of me, I got a good idea of the type of program that I wanted. And so I searched for EHL found it, and from that moment I knew that it was where I wanted to go.

And do you feel that you have added much teaching to your practical experience?

Absolutely. Yeah. When I think about how much I was learning then, which was already a lot compared to how much I'm learning now. It feels so small. What I learned in two years feels like what I learned in that two years we covered in the first six weeks of EHL wisely. Yeah, okay. By the way, it's incredible. And I think like the way the system is designed, you don't get to pick your courses and that you really don't have a choice in what you learn. You learn a bit of everything and not just expanded the depth but the breadth so much more than I would have ever pushed myself on my own to learn.

Staying in Switzerland for three years. Tell us as an American citizen, what's the most exciting and the most boring thing about Switzerland?

The most exciting I'll start with, the most boring I think I would never get used to how early things close. Like the New Yorker in me doesn't think about going grocery shopping before 11pm, and that doesn't really accommodate the Swiss lifestyle. But the most exciting one, maybe not in Switzerland, is just the proximity to other places was so different from the US. I mean, just my ability to go from my first time being in mainland Europe was 2018. And now I've been to 13 Different countries, even with COVID. So like that for me, is something I would never have imagined.