STUDENTS GET HEAD START ON CAREERS
Miami Herald, The (FL) - Thursday, February 3, 2000
Author: ROBERT SANCHEZ, rsanchez@herald.com
Some Miami Beach high school students spent most of Wednesday at the posh Loews Miami Beach Hotel, but they weren't playing hooky.
Instead, the 16 juniors from Beach High's Academy of Travel and Tourism were learning by doing - a staple of the 9-year-old program.
``They give you experience in the working world,'' said Louinze Mertil, one of 230 students attending this school within a school. ``There's an internship after the junior year. They teach you how to be professional. You have more opportunities.''
The Miami Beach program was one of nine ``career academies'' examined in a national study being released today in New York by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. The study tracked 1,700 students attending career academies in five states and the District of Columbia.
Its key conclusion: Students at risk of dropping out, being chronic truants or failing are far more likely to stay in school, attend class regularly and pass all of their courses if they can see how school prepares them for a career.
NOT A CURE-ALL
They're not a panacea, the report cautioned: ``The career academies did not improve standardized math and reading achievement test scores.'' And the effect on the dropout rate depends on other factors such as interpersonal contact with teachers and peers.
Even so, the report concludes: ``Career academies provide a well-defined approach to creating more supportive high school environments and increasing students' exposure to career awareness and work-based learning activities.''
That's old news for Dr. Lupe Diaz. She oversees the Miami Beach academy, one of four travel and tourism academies in Miami-Dade County schools. The others are at Norland, Miami Springs and Homestead high schools.
``While these kids are doing their summer internships,'' Diaz noted, ``they'll be getting paid and earning high school credits. To receive those credits, they must maintain their studies - weekly assignments and a project to do.
``What the academy offers is not so much on-the-job training as an apprenticeship, learning the job from the bottom up. At the hotels, the kids start out in housekeeping. Then they might go to the front desk, engineering or sales and marketing. They end up in the general manager's office. They learn about the industry.
``It's incredible the change in these kids after the internship. They didn't know that there were so many opportunities. On the other hand, there are a few who thought that they might like hotel work but decided they don't. They'll focus on other opportunities. We work with hotels, cruise lines, airlines, travel agencies and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.
``The kids develop a savviness by the time they come back from their internships. The people skills they develop are just incredible.''
Student Ulises Orozco agrees. ``It's not only oriented toward the hospitality field, but it teaches things you can use in everyday life such as communicating with others, working with people and how to behave properly.''
Ann Fields, who oversees all four of the travel and tourism academies plus four finance academies, has been with the program since it began as a pilot project in New York and Miami Springs in 1987.
`POSITIVE IMPACT'
``I have seen it have a positive impact on students, whether they're at risk or not,'' Fields said. ``It gives them an interest in their education. It allows them to tie school with their career goals. It also reaches out to the middle-of-the-road students. They're not advanced, and they're not slow, but in a group often overlooked by special programs.''
Fields said the four travel and tourism academies' total enrollment of 647 includes 309 blacks and 300 Hispanics. That improves minorities' job opportunities in this major South Florida industry.
That, in turn, helps Miami-Dade fulfill one of the ``economic justice'' goals of the agreement that ended the county's 1,030-day tourism boycott. The boycott by blacks began in July 1990 after local politicians snubbed the visiting South African leader Nelson Mandela.
Miami Beach's Diaz said one of the lessons her students quickly learn is that jobs in travel, tourism and hospitality management ``aren't all servitude jobs, but offer a viable career option.''
Michael Lewis, a 16-year-old among the academy juniors at the Loews on Wednesday, says he made the right choice by entering the program. ``This industry has a positive effect on everyone. Whether they're in management positions or not, it benefits them.''
Instead, the 16 juniors from Beach High's Academy of Travel and Tourism were learning by doing - a staple of the 9-year-old program.
``They give you experience in the working world,'' said Louinze Mertil, one of 230 students attending this school within a school. ``There's an internship after the junior year. They teach you how to be professional. You have more opportunities.''
The Miami Beach program was one of nine ``career academies'' examined in a national study being released today in New York by the Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. The study tracked 1,700 students attending career academies in five states and the District of Columbia.
Its key conclusion: Students at risk of dropping out, being chronic truants or failing are far more likely to stay in school, attend class regularly and pass all of their courses if they can see how school prepares them for a career.
NOT A CURE-ALL
They're not a panacea, the report cautioned: ``The career academies did not improve standardized math and reading achievement test scores.'' And the effect on the dropout rate depends on other factors such as interpersonal contact with teachers and peers.
Even so, the report concludes: ``Career academies provide a well-defined approach to creating more supportive high school environments and increasing students' exposure to career awareness and work-based learning activities.''
That's old news for Dr. Lupe Diaz. She oversees the Miami Beach academy, one of four travel and tourism academies in Miami-Dade County schools. The others are at Norland, Miami Springs and Homestead high schools.
``While these kids are doing their summer internships,'' Diaz noted, ``they'll be getting paid and earning high school credits. To receive those credits, they must maintain their studies - weekly assignments and a project to do.
``What the academy offers is not so much on-the-job training as an apprenticeship, learning the job from the bottom up. At the hotels, the kids start out in housekeeping. Then they might go to the front desk, engineering or sales and marketing. They end up in the general manager's office. They learn about the industry.
``It's incredible the change in these kids after the internship. They didn't know that there were so many opportunities. On the other hand, there are a few who thought that they might like hotel work but decided they don't. They'll focus on other opportunities. We work with hotels, cruise lines, airlines, travel agencies and the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau.
``The kids develop a savviness by the time they come back from their internships. The people skills they develop are just incredible.''
Student Ulises Orozco agrees. ``It's not only oriented toward the hospitality field, but it teaches things you can use in everyday life such as communicating with others, working with people and how to behave properly.''
Ann Fields, who oversees all four of the travel and tourism academies plus four finance academies, has been with the program since it began as a pilot project in New York and Miami Springs in 1987.
`POSITIVE IMPACT'
``I have seen it have a positive impact on students, whether they're at risk or not,'' Fields said. ``It gives them an interest in their education. It allows them to tie school with their career goals. It also reaches out to the middle-of-the-road students. They're not advanced, and they're not slow, but in a group often overlooked by special programs.''
Fields said the four travel and tourism academies' total enrollment of 647 includes 309 blacks and 300 Hispanics. That improves minorities' job opportunities in this major South Florida industry.
That, in turn, helps Miami-Dade fulfill one of the ``economic justice'' goals of the agreement that ended the county's 1,030-day tourism boycott. The boycott by blacks began in July 1990 after local politicians snubbed the visiting South African leader Nelson Mandela.
Miami Beach's Diaz said one of the lessons her students quickly learn is that jobs in travel, tourism and hospitality management ``aren't all servitude jobs, but offer a viable career option.''
Michael Lewis, a 16-year-old among the academy juniors at the Loews on Wednesday, says he made the right choice by entering the program. ``This industry has a positive effect on everyone. Whether they're in management positions or not, it benefits them.''
Caption: photo: Angela Rancon with Paola Szpilfeigel and Michael Lewis (a)
CARL JUSTE/HERALD STAFF ENTRY LEVEL: Angela Rancon, Paola Szpilfeigel and Michael Lewis try their hand at folding bathroom rugs in the Loews laundry room. Lewis says he made the right choice by entering the training program.
CARL JUSTE/HERALD STAFF ENTRY LEVEL: Angela Rancon, Paola Szpilfeigel and Michael Lewis try their hand at folding bathroom rugs in the Loews laundry room. Lewis says he made the right choice by entering the training program.
Edition: Final
Section: Local
Page: 5B
Index Terms: MIAMI DADE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT
Record Number: 0002040143
Copyright (c) 2000 The Miami Herald
Section: Local
Page: 5B
Index Terms: MIAMI DADE HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT
Record Number: 0002040143
Copyright (c) 2000 The Miami Herald
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