Alisha, Opportunities for Growth
Three years ago, I started The Hospitality Project with the help of Andrew Rigie at the NYC Hospitality Alliance. The mission of The Hospitality Project is to train NYC’s unemployed and underemployed to become highly-skilled front of the house workers and to place them in guest forward restaurant positions ranging from runner, server assistant, host and server.
Alisha participated in the first class of students in the program and I recently had the pleasure of having a long lunch with her and catching up.
Alisha is full of energy and loves to talk. When she smiles at you, you want to smile back no matter what your mood. Her personality is a perfect fit for hospitality.
Alisha was born in Guyana Berbice, South America. She came to NY with her mom at 3 years old, while her father followed years later. Raised by a single mom Alisha talks about how her mom wanted her to be a nurse but she prefers working in hospitality and how she strives each day to make her mom proud.
When I interviewed Alisha for The Hospitality Project, she told me a story about a regular customer at Dunkin Donuts who came in every day grumpy, no eye contact, and how hard she worked to get him to look at and acknowledge her. Finally, she won him over, he arrived with a smile and warm greeting for her every time he came in. I knew she would be perfect for the first cohort of students.
On a snowy afternoon in November, over lunch at Landmark in Time Warner Center, we talked about the program, her life since the program and her future plans. Alisha's first job offer was at MoMA Cafe 2 with Union Square Hospitality Group as they were a huge supporter of my first class of students.
On her first day, Alisha was placed as a barista, but she stood up for herself and said no, she had already worked at Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks and had completed her training at The Hospitality Project in order to move up—not stay in the same position. Within two days she was moved to server assistant (SA). Alisha worked hard as a SA and, with a manager as her mentor, was able to become a server on Terrace 5 within six months. Alisha moved up faster than any other of the twelve students in her class.
Alisha worked for almost a year as a server, paying her way through school studying childhood education and business management and helping out at home. She loved being a server, but the stations were quite large due to staffing shortages and high volume, and she loves to talk to her guests, so she would often fall behind, and it became too stressful. So, after a year on Terrace 5, she asked to be a host at Cafe 2 which is where she has been for the past year.
It’s a big pay difference but "money is not the motivator. Happiness is," she told me.
She was offered a supervisor position but at the time, school, work and the long commute home did not make the longer hours appealing, so she turned it down.
I asked her how the program helped her to get and stay in the job. She said she would never have had the courage to do this job without the skills she learned in the program. She overcame the fear of being herself and that was eye opening for her. The lessons she learned in the program, such as treat all guests with respect even if they are not respectful to you, show up on time and be ready to work, know your menu, remember everyone on the team is important, helped her to adjust quickly to the job and interactions with co-workers and guests.
During her time as a server, she often went back to her class notes about areas that challenged her. The hardest thing for Alisha was learning the menus—these were food items she was unfamiliar with and not comfortable talking about. She remembered that I spoke often about knowledge = confidence and that helps to create relationships with her guests and drive sales, so she studied diligently to memorize all the food and beverage items available.
Alisha loves working at MoMA. She knows all the staff at all the restaurants and at the museum, including MoMA executives. The regular guests know her and so do the kids who come on Sundays to Kids Club. She told me about some of her favorite kids and even showed me a drawing one of them made for her that she carries around in her bag.
She feels its time to move on but afraid of the unknown. She’s almost done with school and hoping her grades will get her into City College in the fall. With nine months of work she can save a lot of money for classes. A new server position in a slower paced environment closer to home (her commute is over an hour on a good day) is appealing to her and so I said I’d help her to find her next work home.
I asked if she saw a future in hospitality. She realizes she has the qualities to be a good leader and looks at her current supervisor as a role model in how he treats everyone with respect, caring and kindness.
The snow fall was accumulating. We had been together over three hours, with so much to talk about and such fondness for each other. I told her how proud I was of her and would help as much as I could. We parted with a big hug and a promise to stay in touch. My heart was full. The Hospitality Project had changed her life and that was why I created it.