A learning experience

Coral Wilson

Door attendant Derek Bostelman, 11, had to use both hands to pull

open the heavy glass doors of the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach

Resort & Spa.

“Do you need any directions?” he asked guests as they passed in

and out. “Do you need your car?”

In his straw hat and tropical shirt, Derek fit right in. But his

small size made passersby pause and take a second glance.

It was Camp Hyatt Career Day and 21 fifth-graders from John R.

Peterson Elementary School in Huntington Beach invaded the hotel.

Employees in most all areas -- including chefs, managers,

housekeepers and engineers -- had miniature versions in appropriate

dress tagging closely behind. Through an elaborate game of make

believe, students were introduced to jobs in the travel and

hospitality industry.

In a staff elevator, Hyatt employee Daniel Williams, an in-room

dining server, reviewed lessons with 10-year-old Erik Suarez.

“Networking, teamwork and treat people the way you want them to

treat you,” Erik parroted.

The duo stopped to prepare an order that totaled $109.25 that had

just come in -- wine, fruit, cheese, bread and chocolate covered

strawberries. As Erik stuffed the bread with crackers to create a

delicate fan-like shape, general manager Cormac O’Modhrain followed

by Casey Stephens, 11, stopped to check in.

Casey handed out several personalized business cards that she had

stashed in her jacket pocket.

“Casey needs to check up on you to see how you are doing,”

O’Modhrain told Erik. “Do you have any complaints for the general

manager?”

As soon as the finishing touches had been added, Williams and Erik

took turns pushing the beautiful display of food down hallways and up

more elevators. In the large hotel, it was a long walk.

They passed by 10-year-old Jazmyn Contreras and housekeeping

supervisor, Gunjan Malik, who were knocking on doors. When no one

answered, they entered the room.

It had already been marked off as clean but Malik’s job was to

make sure it was up to Hyatt standards.

They flipped on all the lights, straightened the towels and looked

for creases on the bed sheets.

“This is very wrong,” Malik said as she tied the antenna cord on

the clock radio into a neat bundle. “No loose ends, no loose wires,

it has to be detailed.”

She found the telephone cord had also not been tied and the

distance from the wall to the bedside table was not even. Malik

sighed with dismay, there had been too many details overlooked. The

person who had cleaned the room would have to be retrained, she said.

As recreation attendant Caroline Moore and 11-year-old Mahrria

Rivera passed through the lobby, Mahrria reviewed one of the Hyatt

rules of hospitality.

“If they are 10 feet away, you stare at them,” Mahrria said.

“Smile, you smile at them,” Rivera said.

Mahrria struggled to remember the rest.

“And when they are five feet away, you say hello,” she continued.

“You greet them,” Rivera said with an encouraging smile.

The students caught on to their new roles quickly. But it was when

Chris Gillen, 10, left the front desk to carry a guest’s bag to her

car, that he became convinced with his new job.

As he lifted the bag to the car trunk, the woman handed him a tip.

Chris hesitated briefly and then shyly accepted the money.

Immediately, his face broke out in a grin too big to hide.

As he walked back to the hotel, his tie swinging, he proudly

stuffed the tip deep within the pocket of his black dress slacks.

“That’s another happy guest, right?” front office manager Brian

Harris asked with a broad smile.

But Chris was not listening, he had spotted his friend,

11-year-old Markus Trujillo.

“They gave me two bucks,” Chris told Markus as he shoved two

fingers into Markus’s surprised face. “Two bucks for carrying their

bag.”

* CORAL WILSON is a news assistant who covers education. She can

be reached at (714) 965-7177 or by e-mail at

[email protected].