MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — With resumes in hand, Middle Tennessee State University students met with prospective employers at the annual spring career fair hosted recently by the Tourism and Hospitality Management and Leisure and Sport Management programs.

Recruiters from some of the biggest companies in the Middle Tennessee region — ranging from the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Viking Cruises to Nashville Soccer Club and Tennessee State Parks — were on hand to meet with MTSU students and alumni inside the Student Union Ballroom.

“There’s a hiring process. They each had a table and talked with students,” explained Yi “Vanessa” Liu, assistant professor in MTSU’s Tourism and Hospitality program within the Department of Health and Human Performance.

Jalen Norwood, a senior tourism and hospitality major from Knoxville, Tennessee, was eager to network with participating employers as she plans her post-graduate career move in May. She hopes to find a spot in the food and beverage industry.

“I love meeting new people and I think food definitely brings people together,” Norwood said. “And I hope to find a job that allows me to travel and eat and meet new people.”

Seniors Naomi King and Mary Leigh Slate, of La Vergne and Smyrna, Tennessee, respectively, were hoping to find long-term positions in events and catering following graduation. King already works at a local hotel chain but she’s hoping to find a job that will allow her to move up quickly in the industry.

“We are training future leaders for the industry, not line-level workers,” said Elizabeth Whalen, assistant professor and Tourism and Hospitality program coordinator. “What we are teaching is for the job five to 10 years from now. We are teaching best practices. We are teaching management skills. We are teaching accounting and finance, marketing principles.”

Students are required to work in the tourism, hospitality and events industry as part of coursework, logging at least 300 hours each semester — which averages about 20 hours a week — at two different organizations that apply to course credits. So some of the students who showed up at the career fair were looking for those positions.

“I was hoping to find an internship or full-time position related to event planning,” said tourism and hospitality major Emma Samba of Knoxville, who plans to use her degree to find a job that allows her to travel, and she eventually plans to start her own business.

The Feb. 26 career fair was open to all MTSU students and alumni, regardless of major, so it attracted students like English major Clarence Demaree of Chattanooga, Tennessee, who showed up to “see what’s out there.”

“I’m keeping an open mind,” said Demaree, who followed professor instructions and wore a business suit to the fair.

Whether students are in tourism and hospitality-related majors or not, Whalen said she loves that the career fair allows the university to showcase what the industry has to offer.

“One of the things I love is we get to show students this amazing industry we have here and how much support there is,” Whalen said, looking around the room at the booths from various companies like hotels, tourist destinations, recreation facilities and travel lines.

Whalen said she’s built relationships with recruiters over the past five years MTSU has hosted the spring career fair and she’s always hearing success stories.

“These recruiters want to keep coming back, year after year, to the career fair because our students are amazing,” Whalen said. “And it’s just a testament to the quality and caliber of students we have coming through the MTSU.”

To be in the middle of tourism central — between the music industry that brings in visitors to the sports leagues and destinations — is fortunate for MTSU students graduating with Tourism/Hospitality or Leisure/Sport Management degrees, she said.

Tourism and hospitality major Campbell Bledsoe of Nashville attended the fair as a representative of Nashville Shores. Two years ago, he entered MTSU with plans to become an audio production major. But he enjoyed his summer job at the water park and discovered he could make a career of it, so he changed majors.

“After my first semester in Tourism and Hospitality Management, I knew this is what I wanted to do,” said Bledsoe, who manages the lifeguard department at Nashville Shores and hopes to continue to rise in the company ranks. “I started at Nashville Shores when I was 15 and I fell in love with it.”

He hopes others seeking a career path will look at the tourism/hospitality and leisure/sports management programs.

“There’s so much more to the industry than just hotels and serving,” Bledsoe said. “Within hospitality, there’s so much stuff you can get into.”

— Nancy DeGennaro (Nancy.DeGennaro@mtsu.edu)