Hotel senior Renese Rhoden's upbeat attitude has served her well

By Linda Myers

Cornell Hotel School senior Renese Rhoden is the kind of person you just want to be around.

Senior Renese Rhoden takes a break in the lobby of the Statler Hotel on campus. Charles Harrington/University Photography

It's her smile you notice first -- not an ear-to-ear, 1,000-watt Julia Roberts smile, but rather something more genuine, welcoming and appreciative of the people with whom she interacts. The smile reflects "her unwavering commitment to be of service to others, which is what makes her a great 'hotelie,''' said Neoma Mullens, director of multicultural programs at the School of Hotel Administration.

That Rhoden ended up at Cornell's Hotel School at all is still a surprise to her. As a high school student in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., she got involved in a program called DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), which works to interest young people in careers in management. "We took extracurricular workshops geared toward business and made trips to corporations," she said. But the corporate culture turned her off. "I didn't want to be trapped behind a cubicle. I wanted to be in a work environment surrounded by people who knew me as Renese," she said.

Then her DECA chapter got involved in a statewide competition, and a high school teacher and mentor enrolled her in a category she hadn't heard of -- hospitality. In addition to a written test, she took part in a role-playing scenario in which she was a manager at a resort. Her task: to win over a client who had threatened to take her event elsewhere after the property's new function room became unavailable. The challenge, as well as the interaction with people, appealed to Rhoden immediately.

Searching for college hospitality programs, she discovered Cornell, applied and was accepted. She chose it over the safer option of attending a university campus only 30 minutes from her home, because she wanted to expand her horizons. She took part in a prefreshman program on campus several months before school began and met a handful of young women who ended up becoming her future roommates and closest friends, which smoothed her transition to college life.

One disappointment, however, was that one of her high school passions, cheerleading, seemed out of place on campus. "I like moving, dancing, performing," she said. "It was a natural for me to cheerlead in high school in the south, where it's a huge thing. I was on a competition squad, county, state, national. I loved the pressure and the excitement, being surrounded by people who really wanted to win." But she found the activity was not taken as seriously in an Ivy League environment, and after cheerleading in football and basketball her first year, she let it go. She remained a member of the Cornell step squad, Phenomenon, for three years, however.

Another, perhaps deeper disappointment was that socially, black and white students didn't seem to mix as much as she had hoped on campus. "The division among racial groups here surprised me," she said. "My friends have always been mixed -- African American, Hispanic, white. For me, diversity is extremely important. You can learn so much from different groups."

Then came her most painful experience -- coping with the death of her mother from cancer during Rhoden's sophomore year. "I took a little time off to go home and be with my dad and sisters. I kept a journal. I talked with Neoma Mullens. It helped me to understand that even when life isn't fair, it's still good, and God has blessed me in other ways," she said. So instead of focusing on the negatives in her life, she decided to get more involved.

"She's a doer, not a complainer," noted Mullens. "She became a leader, mentor and coach to most of the multicultural undergraduates at the Hotel School and made phone calls to help us recruit a more diverse group of incoming students."

Rhoden was named vice president, then president of the National Society of Minorities in Hospitality. The 10-year-old organization, which originated at Cornell and now has 40 chapters nationwide, promotes diversity within the hospitality industry.

And academically Rhoden found her niche. "A lot of hotel schools are just about napkin folding," she said, "but here they teach you how to be managers." She enrolled in a course in finance taught by Associate Professor Steven Carvell and went on to become a teaching assistant for several related courses. "I really liked the subject," she said. "Steve made it fun and exciting. You couldn't help but let it rub off on you."

This year she interviewed with Four Seasons Hotels and accepted a position as assistant manager--rooms division with the company's resort hotels in Palm Beach, Fla., near her home.

Rhoden, who hopes eventually to return to school and earn an MBA, then work in finance consulting in the hospitality industry, now says about her experience at Cornell: "I've changed so much in the last four years. There's a lot of passion I didn't realize I had and people I wouldn't have met if I'd stayed at home. It's as if I came her only with 'A, B, C' and left here with all the letters of the alphabet."