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Saturday, May 06, 2006 After 12 months of deciding and deliberation on over 30 colleges spanning 8 of Canada's 10 provinces from coast to coast I have made my official decision. The lifelong decision that will lead me down many paths, I have been accepted and chosen to accept my place at The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology or NAIT as it's most commonly called in Edmonton, Alberta. In western Canada I will be enrolled in their sensational 2 year Hospitality Management program. The courses covering all subjects spanning the ever expanding world of hospitality and international tourism including hotel management, restauarant management, banquet and event logistics, international tourism patterns, hospitality law and much more. The program is extremely hands-on with many options to become part of the program that are available to its students. The small size nature of NAIT allows the creative college to devote a solid amount of attention to each student, giving them the time and to experience education. Main Campus Tower at NAIT Founded in 1963 NAIT has become one of Canada's most innovative and cutting edge Canadian colleges. NAIT offers over 200 programs encapsulating all areas of the trades, food, tourism, medical practice and technology. NAIT offers top notch programming laced with experience and igenuity NAIT offers a sesnational something for all interested in these vital fields. Over 7000 full time students attend NAIT with over 14, 000 further students engaged in NAIT's award winning and widely prized apprenticship programs. NAIT has: 3 campuses in each corner of the city in Edmonton and the northern Alberta communities of High Level, Peace River and St. Albert in the centre of Canada's oilfields and expanding energy might. NAIT is investing over 50 million dollars into the future constructing a campus adding to its presence in northern Alberta in Grand Prarie with further technological based courses. A brand new centre focusing on steel and steel technologies will hold it's grand opening this coming summer 2006, new business centre offering diplomas in business in Edmonton, a newly refreshed building also on Main Campus in Edmonton to accomodate a new Building and Environmental Systems Technology program. Fuelled by Alberta's powerful and thriving economy NAIT contines to construct a rapid pace that will allow the college to train over 200,000 further students to enter the workforce across Alberta, Canada and the world by 2010. NAIT serves its students with a wide variety of hands on based programming, that allows them to see and do as they learn. Not simply learning by the book by any means, NAIT students have a literal world of ways to learn available to them. As part of the Hospitality Management program I will have classes in their reservation and hotel systems lab. Employing the latest and most widely used systems that hotels and travel agents around the world use I will learn the latest and practice making flight and hotel bookings. In addition one of the most important facilities that attracted me to NAIT is there highly extensive hospitality campus called the Hokanson Centre for Culinary Arts that has just undergone a massive 3.25 million dollar refurbishment and redo. John and Susan Hokanson gave 1 million dollars, the single biggest donation the college has ever received, with the belief that it will create a bright future for the hundreds of students who go throught NAIT's culinary, baking and hospitality courses annually. They include state of the art cooking and baking kitchens complete with computerised ovens and digital teaching tools. The crown jewel and most important for my two years at NAIT is there 4 1/2 star student led restaurant ERNESTS The formal restaurant allows hospitality students to work in conjunction with Culinary Arts & Baking students to successfully manage and operate the service side of things. Whether it be manning the reservations desk taking phone and email reservations to waiting on and bussing tables and managing food and beverage service to becoming part of a special event, there is so much to learn! The restaurant frequently will host special events of up to 120 guests which hospitality students play an intergral role in. This becomes part of the curiculum where we will show what we have learned about the operations, logistics, set up and service of large scale events from company parties to birthday bashs. ERNESTS has become an award winning highly rated downtown Edmonton restaurant that has received rave reviews from locals and tourists alike. There's more than just this spectacular restaurant if that's even possible! Hospitality students also help to run The Club Five Star. The HP Computer Commons, NAIT's public student computer lab open 24/7 with 110 computers with all nessecary software  The rolling hills of Tuscany, Italy Cooking courses including Indian can be taken through NAIT's part time learning department as nightschool courses. COOP placements are part of the program and can be done locally in Edmonton, nearby major ski and environmental tourism destination Jasper and further south closer to Calgary Banff, Lake Louise, Canmore and Rocky Mountain House. NAIT suggests services and companies and leads you to making the right choices if study abroad is the choice you want to make. For my personal interests I can choose to work at the student led restaurant/hang out for NAIT students called The Nest if I choose. I can also join the Curling team, write for the campus newspaper, and utilize the swimming pool,exercise facilities and more. NAIT also has student led trips including cruises within North America and abroad. I'm extremely excited to potentially visit Edmonton and see NAIT in person this coming Spring and to spend 2 years at this one of a kind college. I am confident NAIT will prepare me immensely and show me the right direction through experience, hands-on learning and lectures! I will register in August and start working towards my diploma in September 2006! The breathtaking scenery of nearby Jasper, Alberta that draws millions of tourists from across the globe annually
Teague Neal blogged on 3:04 PM
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Teague Neal |
