MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University’s headline-making Tourism and Hospitality Management program is “on the itinerary” for the July edition of “Out of the Blue,” the university’s television magazine.

Elizabeth Whalen, director of the program in the College of Behavioral and Health Sciences, talked with show host Andrew Oppmann, vice president of the Division of Marketing and Communications, about how students are preparing for careers in this dynamic industry and exciting news that will help shape the course of its future — and impact other majors as well.

View the video below:

With Music City just 30 miles up the road, the close proximity to a booming tourism industry in Nashville is a boon for the program with “so many amazing connections,” Whalen said, paving the way for students’ success.

“We’re in the industry of having fun. There’s a lot of fun moments, and you get to see things from start to finish the total fruition of that,” Whalen said. “It’s high-paying, it’s exciting.”

Students aren’t focused on front-line positions, but training is geared toward a “sustainable long-term career,” she said.

“I like to call it a specialized service business degree. So, you’re going to learn a lot of the business theory,” Whalen explained. “But then we go beyond that and look at the service-based business. So, you are focusing on the intangible product, the experience, you’re designing it.”

Students are also learning marketing, accounting, finance, human resources and management skills. As part of coursework, students must work in some aspect of the service and hospitality industry while they can apply classroom knowledge and theory development with real-world experiences.

So, when students graduate, they are stepping straight into management positions.

“What we’re going to provide is the job five to 10 years from now,” Whalen said.

And there are more doors opening soon.

In the near future, an experiential learning project — an on-campus hotel — will get students hands-on with Southern hospitality within arm’s reach.

“There are so many valuable elements of this hotel, and not just for us in tourism and hospitality,” Whalen said. “There are all these opportunities to get integrated across the entirety of campus, and it’s kind of the nexus of that.”

Interior architecture students are doing their capstone project on designing a hotel. Concrete and construction management majors will gain experience on the hotel structure and how it’s developed, processed and built. Nutrition students will help with menu planning. The School of Agriculture’s creamery will provide food and beverage options for the hotel.

“There are a lot of ways to get connected to our academic programs on campus,” Whalen said.

To learn more, visit http://bit.ly/4lM9fkv.

“Out of the Blue” is available anytime on the university’s YouTube channel, the True Blue TV channel, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. It also airs on Murfreesboro cable Channel 9 daily at 6 and 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; NewsChannel5+ at 6:30 p.m. Sundays; WKRN+ at 7 p.m. Thursdays and noon Sundays; via streaming on MTSU’s Jazz Network on WMOT HD2 and through WMOT.org at 7 a.m. on the first Sunday of each month; and on other cable outlets in Middle Tennessee, so check local listings.

It is also available as a podcast on iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Music, iHeart and as individual interview segments on primary host Spotify at https://spoti.fi/453hxg3.

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