SUPPLEMENTARY EVIDENCE

The University of Houston Provost Paula Myrick Short created a program in 2016 to engage faculty and students to develop the "Next Big Thing."  As a part of a five-year Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) to improve student learning, a team of faculty and staff developed the Cougar Initiative to Engage (CITE).  Grants are awarded each semester based on proposals by faculty who a committee of faculty reviews to ensure the merits of the programs.   Each program is reviewed to ensure that it engages the students through experiential learning in a subject matter or field and the committee outside the University. 

In applying for this grant, I intended to go beyond the classroom and have the students at the Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership use the concepts from the school in a natural world setting. The additional challenge for this specific submission was that the world was still working around the limitations of the COVID-19 pandemic.   

In the proposal, the main goals of the program were highlighted. These included: 

• Further, develop those skill sets that will be necessary to succeed in this new 21st century reality 
• Stretch their critical thinking problem-solving skills 
• Learn how to be flexible and adaptable in a changing environment Learn the importance of teamwork 
• Design a concept that could become a deliverable and tool for the industry partner 
• Strengthen communication skills necessary to articulate a strategy/concept 
• Engage skills learned in the classroom and directly apply them to real scenarios while engaging with the community and affecting change  

The project was completed the fall I began my doctoral program at SHSU. However, this has been a baseline for applying concepts presented in this program. I intend to apply for another CITE grant for Spring 2023 that will also be an experiential learning experience. Still, the grant proposal will focus on developing a training and development program for small hospitality businesses like restaurants, bed and breakfast inns, or spas.

My background is in hospitality finance, and after working in the industry for over 20 years, I went into teaching. The opportunity to pass on my knowledge and experience to others was attractive as it allowed me to give back to an industry for which I have much passion. Noted in my curriculum vitae, are several publications and presentations focused on finance in hospitality. AME Learning (Accounting Made Easy) is an organization whose focus is to provide interactive and engaging resources in the study of accounting. They contacted me at first to review a textbook they were updating for global hospitality programs.   

After my initial review of their textbook, they recruited me to outline in more detail learning objectives for two of their chapters that focused on a framework for hospitality accounting. The Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USALI) is used globally as the foundation for hospitality financial reporting. Through my business, Ascend, my colleague and I have developed an in-depth certificate program for the owner of the USALI, Hospitality Financial and Technology Professionals (HFTP). Due to all these interactions with the USALI and my professional background and role as faculty at the University of Houston, AME Learning asked if I would author the following chapters in the USA edition of their book:  

• Chapter 1: Financial Statements in Management Accounting 
• Chapter 3: Financial Statement Analysis  

The chapters were written by interactively providing the content with examples and real-world scenarios. In addition, there is a workbook that can offer exercises in the same interactive format to engage the learner. One unique aspect of AME Learning is that they use many infographics and visual tools to help the student understand the accounting material. In developing the chapters, I learned how to create some of these tools to use in the chapters. During this experience, I applied the pedagogical and design concepts from the doctoral program to my area of expertise.  

Relating this to experiential learning, authoring the chapters was a different application of experiential learning through static course material. In designing the textbook and workbook content, how to engage the learner was a principal objective—challenging but a great experience.   

The HC3 was born from a comment made at a faculty meeting. Side note, never think out loud in a faculty meeting.  Schools had finished the spring semester virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Students had lost internships, and many of their jobs and engagement was low, as was morale. The hackathon was created to re-engage students and to have them focus on helping the industry manage through these turbulent times.

Statistics from the event were:

• 32  undergraduate and graduate programs from around the world participated
• 29 entries were received (some schools partnered to form a team)
• 15 judges from various segments of the hospitality industry
• 10 undergraduate finalist
• 8 graduate finalist

Two experiential learning opportunities were developed from this event. The first was the students who imagined solutions for the challenges faced due to COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic. The second was a team of eight students who volunteered to help organize and run the event. The students had a significant experiential learning experience in navigating new territory. 

Designing, coordinating, and executing this event was unchartered territory, and there was no example to follow. The students had to draw from past experiences, learn from trial and error and work together collaboratively to meet deadlines and expectations. As everyone was remote, this made the task more challenging. We had students working from different parts of the world as many had returned to their homelands for spring break, and travel was restricted. 

Involvement in this event is something I often draw on and add or compare to the coursework presented in this doctoral program. Going back to this project, there are many opportunities for improvement based on what I know now. Despite this, there were learning methodologies at play that significantly impacted the students' knowledge base. Using the frameworks studied in this program, I took the outcomes of this event and am applying them to my future research interests and current course designs.