Phuong Hoang, B.S. in Hospitality Management, 2023

When she was little, Phuong Hoang remembers playing on the kitchen floor of the restaurant her mother managed. She loves to cook but also realized that you must have a business mindset to become successful.

Hoang’s parents are in the restaurant management business, so food and the service industry are second nature to her. When she had the opportunity to study at a university abroad, the Vietnam native decided that she would pursue an American education, consulted with a study abroad agency and settled on FIU.

“I chose FIU because of its rankings. I was considering business and hospitality. I eventually went with FIU because both programs I was considering were ranked very high,” she says.

Once into her first year at the university, she realized that she had found her educational pathway—the B.S. in Hospitality Management. This degree would help her learn hospitality and the business side of the service industry. The major married her two interests, and besides that, she loved the location of the university.

Despite being so far from her family, Hoang has embraced her living-away-from-home experience as she found a group of friends, also Vietnamese, to lean on, learn from and practice her English with. She met them through the Vietnamese Association student organization. Her focus now is to acquire industry experience to add to her resume before she returns to her home country.

In this Q&A, Hoang shares her experience studying in America at FIU and what she likes most about her program.

When do you graduate?

I am a senior majoring in hospitality management with a minor in marketing. I will be graduating in spring, 2023.

Where do you work now? What do you do?

I am a marketing intern for FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. I assist with designing content for social media and internal marketing requests. I also work directly with the director of marketing on event marketing production. So, it’s a fun day at work every time. To add, I am the marketing coordinator for the Coffee Guild at FIU, a student organization whose members educate themselves about the world of coffee.

What has been your favorite class and why?

My favorite class would be Hospitality Marketing and Digital Marketing. The Introduction to Marketing Hospitality class was what made me realize where I wanted to focus on my career path. Digital Marketing was one of the challenging classes I enrolled in where I worked on projects that required critical thinking and strategic creativity.

What immediately applicable skills have you learned?

I learned to use tools to help with planning and organizing my content calendar when managing social media for Coffee Guild. This gave me so much confidence and it has improved my efficiency in producing the best results as well. 

How does your degree help you in your work?

My whole experience here at FIU has been a blessing because it’s not only the valuable knowledge that I learned in class but also the many other resources the school offered for me to aim even higher and reach my full potential. They are real working experiences, intensive workshops, and relationship-building opportunities with talented people from diverse backgrounds. These are the things that I could not have experienced anywhere else.

Why did you decide to study this area and choose this program?

Growing up, I have always enjoyed working with food since my family, who are industry professionals in the food and beverage field, inspired me to pursue this career. In addition to its high rankings, I chose the hospitality program at Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management because it is located in the rising city of hospitality, Miami, which is a plus!

What is one thing you learned that you didn’t expect?

I learned to overcome myself when it comes to being proactive in searching for opportunities and obtaining hands-on experience. And surprisingly, the Chaplin School has helped me tremendously in this matter, especially when there are limitations for international students when it comes to employment.

Would you recommend this program to other students?

Yes, 100%! I think that FIU, from my experience, offers a lot of resources for students. These resources are free and valuable for students to learn. A lot of students don’t know how to be proactive about their research in finding these opportunities. FIU helps students find what they need to succeed and taking part in the events can help build relationships that will lead to more opportunities. When I was in a national start-up entrepreneurship competition, I learned from so many people that were knowledgeable than me. International people tend to be on the shy side because of their language barrier. This event was a turning point for me, and it forced me to be more open and talk to people. I ended up learning more valuable things that helped me grow. FIU provides opportunities for growth.