Mentoring Program pairs top students with industry professionals for real-world experience

MU’s Mentoring Program offers a unique opportunity to pair BBA students of Tourism and Hospitality Management in their final year of studies with a senior representative in the tourism and hospitality industry. Participation on the course is dependent on their academic career at MU, as only the best students are selected for the privilege of working in close contact with tourism and consulting professionals.

Students are able to observe operations and management tasks onsite, communicate with senior staff, and complete a business-related assignment. Activities such as site visits, discussions, participation in business meetings and problem-based learning (studying selected business problems, developing possible solutions and presenting the outcomes) are part of the curriculum.

This semester’s participants chose their mentors from diverse fields, and focused on a variety of projects during their mentorships. Dagmar Lund-Durlacher, Dean of the Bachelor Programs, is the program coordinator:  "Mentors inspire our students with their rich treasure trove of experiences and their charismatic personality and students get many useful tips from them for their future career. We are very grateful to the industry leaders who dedicate their time and passion to encourage our students to thrive for excellence."

Sebastian Ferrari presented "Marketing Concept for Lalaland", detailing his suggestions for promotion and expansion of a kid-friendly restaurant and bed and breakfast in Wiesbaden, Germany. He was mentored by Hans Reitz, Founder & Managing Director, Circ Communication Agency, Lalaland Cafe and BB, Perfect Day, Grameen Creative Lab & Team.

Julia Baumgartner, under the mentorship of Gabriele Hasenauer, Director of Human Resources, Vienna Marriott Hotel, took a more numerical approach to "Quality Management: An Analysis of Guest Reports 2013".

 Jelena Savic had the task of assessing Twitter, Facebook et al. for two hotels from the same group with a very different image and clientele in her report "Social Media Strategies for The Grand Hotel and The Ring".  She was mentored by Horst Mayer, General Manager and Margret Winkler, PR & Communication, JJW Austria & Europe - Grand Hotel Wien, The Ring, Lake's.  Ms. Winkler was extremely pleased with her performance, awarding Jelena top marks across the board: ''Ms. Savic was very enthusiastic about her project, and could vice versa also give us a lot of useful input regarding how to handle the theme of Social Media.''

Thais Petrenko took on consulting with PKF hotelexperts with "Hotel Consulting – Essentials and Struggles". Her focus was on spas and hotels in the Ukraine and Macedonia, mentored by PKF Managing Partner, Michael Widmann and his team.  "My colleagues from the office were all very friendly and helpful. I really learned so much from this program, I wish everyone could benefit!" she said.

Simon Hala mentored at Austria’s largest online ticketing agency, "oeticket.com Event Packages - Customer Satisfaction and Preferences" analyzing the statistics and surveying oeticket customers on their package preferences.  Of the experience he said ‘’The mentoring program was a great opportunity to meet and work with top professionals in their respective industry. It was both a challenge and great fun being responsible for a real life project. I really enjoyed the collaboration with oeticket.com and being part of such a great company!’’

His mentors Stefan Marz, Head of Marketing and Sales and Sandra Hauptmann, Product Management Corporate Sales, oeticket - Ticket Express were so impressed with his performance that they even offered him a position at the company  – too bad for them Simon has already signed a job contract!

L-R: Thais Petrenko, Michael Widmann, Margret Winkler, Dagmar Lund-Durlacher, Jelena Savic, Sandra Hauptmann, Simon Hala, Stefan Marz, Sebastian Ferrari, Gabriele Hasenauer, Ms. Vollgruber, Julia Baumgartner, assistant to Ms. Hasenauer