Hospitality Intern - Recreation

Description

Who We Are

Founded in 1926, the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation is a private, not-for-profit educational, historic, and cultural institution that owns and operates one of the largest and best-known museum complexes in the world. Our mission is “that the future may learn from the past” through preserving and restoring 18th-century Williamsburg, Virginia’s colonial capital. We engage, inform, and inspire people to learn about this historic capital, the events that occurred here, and the diverse peoples who helped shape a new nation. Today, Colonial Williamsburg is the largest living history museum in the U.S. The Historic Area is the 301-acre restored colonial capital with 88 original buildings and 525 buildings reconstructed to how they appeared in the 18th century through extensive archaeological, architectural, and documentary research. The Historic Area is staffed by highly trained, historically dressed interpreters and expert tradespeople who bring the 18th century to life. The Foundation also owns and operates two world-class museums, the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum, and a renowned research library, the John D Rockefeller Jr Library. Additionally, Colonial Williamsburg is home to five world class accommodations at the Williamsburg Inn, Williamsburg Lodge Autograph Collection, the Griffin Hotel, the Williamsburg Woodlands Hotels and Suites and the unique Colonial Houses in the Historical Area. Visitors may also indulge in food and drink at our many on site restaurants and taverns that blend a historically inspired dining experience with today’s evolved tastes. Each year over 5 million people visit Williamsburg and another 20 million engage with us digitally.

About the Position

The programming we offer requires additional labor during the summer season. We have developed the hospitality intern program to allow us to hire appropriate staff for the summer and build potential future employees. Our interns our recruited from local and non-local hospitality and recreation degree programs. We travel to job fairs within the state, such as JMU and Virginia Tech, to recruit directly from their hospitality programs. The Woodlands is also a member of the Resort and Commercial Recreation Association. This organization hosts an annual conference on the latest advances in commercial recreation as well as a job fair. We attend the conference and participate in the job fair, recruiting for interns from schools across the country that are affiliated with the association.

The summer interns are supervised directly by the Guest Service Supervisor position (Arlene “Coffee” Worelds) and indirectly by the General Manager and Guest Service Managers. We have been successful in recruiting interns with potential for future development. An example of this is Tara Melki. Tara was recruited at a JMU job fair to be a summer intern. She returned the following summer as a lead intern and was hired on after the summer as a front desk attendant. Tara worked her way to Guest Service Supervisor and then a Housekeeping Manger. We focus our training of the interns on proper procedures and safety during all activities. They are also trained on customer service and are given duties for development of new activities. The interns are vital to the consistency and future development of the Fun Zone programs.

Required and Preferred Education and Experience:

Required: High school graduate

Preferred: College experience with Hospitality exposure

Qualifications:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, comfortable with public contact, and strong organizational skills
• Ability to (1) work with co-workers and the public with tact and courtesy; (2) work well under pressure; (3) react quickly to changing priorities
• Strong skills in handling guests' complaints, must be able to maintain confidentiality
• Prior public contact experience
• Proficiency with computers (Internet, email, spreadsheets, etc.); Word and PowerPoint skills helpful
• Ability to work independently; demonstrated dependability, punctuality, and efficiency.
• Standards: Maintain a positive, enthusiastic outlook; smile and greet guests