A First for Jacksonville Hospitality Institute!

After 9 weeks of intense training, JHI’s first graduating class (at right) celebrates their achievement during the graduation ceremony held in their honor!

It was a glittering night of triumph for the first graduating class of the Jacksonville Hospitality Institute (JHI) on Thursday, February 22nd at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

Surrounded by proud family and friends, Gloria Acker, Patricia Anderson, Shante Browder, Barry Filene, Eugenie Gill, Rose Hughes, Gwendolyn McKinney, Charmaine Price, Stephanie Smith, Jackie Stewart and Catina Williams celebrated their completion of the concentrated nine week course at JHI and the beginning of promising new careers in the booming hospitality industry.

Accepting their diplomas from JHI Director Todd Jones and FreshMinistries USA, J. Randall Evans, each of the graduates took center stage in the intimate, meaningful ceremony to give a brief testimony.

Pictured left to right: Randy Evans, President of FreshMinistries USA, HI graduate, Shante Browder, JHI Director, Todd Jones, keynote speaker, Henri Landwirth with Shante’s daughter, Tymple at JHI’s graduation ceremony held February 22, 2007

“JHI was the turning point in my life,” said graduate Shante Browder, who is now employed at the front desk of the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville. “It was only by the grace of God that I found JHI and a new beginning for my little girls and me.”

A victim of domestic violence, Browder talked of being held in virtual bondage for nearly four years before escaping to Jacksonville with her two daughters (ages 18 months and 3) in May of last year. Browder and her children were homeless, had nothing but the clothes on their backs, and knew no one in Jacksonville when they arrived. For a brief time, they stayed in the Salvation Army shelter before moving into public housing, where they currently live. Browder rode busses to WorkSource each day, seeking job training and employment.

“I was in the military years ago, but had lost touch with reality for a long time and found that I had few marketable job skills left,” she said. There were times, she recalled, that she “just wanted to die.” “But I knew somebody had to take care of my babies – so I just kept running for that bus and praying that God would help us.”

It was on a WorkSource bulletin board that Browder found the answer to her prayers. “When I saw the JHI flyer offering free nine-week training in the hospitality industry, I jumped at the opportunity,” she said. “It is the best thing I’ve ever done for myself.”

An initiative of FreshMinistries, a Jacksonville-based ecumenical organization dedicated to local and global assistance of people in need of humanitarian services, the Jacksonville Hospitality Institute is located at Beaver Street Enterprise Center (also a FreshMinistries initiative and the state of Florida’s only core-city business incubator).

Providing training in specific hospitality industry-related job skills to unemployed, underemployed, homeless and disadvantaged youth and adults (ages 18 to 45), JHI launched it’s first class in November of 2006.

“Like Shante, nearly all of our graduates here tonight are already working in fine area hotels,” said JHI Director Todd Jones. “They have acquired more than basic job skills training. They have a new self-confidence and awareness of their own abilities and the limitless possibilities open to them.”

Focusing on job readiness, skills training, job placement, counseling, and mentoring, JHI and its community partners, including Comcast, WorkSource, Hyatt, Omni, Wyndham and the Clara White Mission Culinary Program, also provides ongoing support and follow-up evaluation to graduates and their employers.

“One thing I learned at JHI is that no one can do it all alone,” said Browder. “Every person in our class helped every other person. We made forever friends at JHI and we are all headed for an exciting future.”

The keynote speaker for JHI’s inaugural graduating class was hotel magnate and nationally known philanthropist Henri Landwirth, who regaled graduates with his own dramatic rags to riches story. A 79 year-old Holocaust survivor, Landwirth talked of arriving in the United States in 1950 with a 6tth grade education, $20 in his pocket and “no English.” “I learned how to do every job from bellboy to manager and ended up owning several hotels,” he told the graduates, noting that honesty, hard work and belief in miracles took him from the very worst to the very best.

“Mr. Landwirth was a great inspiration,” said Browder, “and JHI is one of the miracles he was talking about. I’ve got a new job, new goals, and a new life.”

If you are interested in either supporting this important initiative or working in the hospitality field and are ready for a free multi-week course that will provide the skills necessary in this growing customer service industry contact Todd Jones, 904.265.4750.

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