Entrepreneurship
minor prepares
students for success
Entrepreneurship
minor prepares
students for
success
Entrepreneurship
minor prepares
students for success
Developing an entrepreneurial foundation
Students in hospitality management can explore their entrepreneurial ambitions with the Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ENTI) Intercollege Minor at Penn State. The hospitality management concentration is designed to help students develop foundational entrepreneurial skills across the hospitality industry, including hotels, resorts, restaurants, franchising, casinos, events, senior living, information technology, finance, human resources, and revenue management.
The program is one of ten concentration areas—or clusters—in the ENTI minor, which encourages students to develop the skills needed for entrepreneurship, business development, and leadership within a specific industry or area of interest.
Bill Kidd is an instructor in the School of Hospitality Management and director of the Hospitality Management ENTI cluster. Before becoming a full-time instructor at Penn State, Kidd worked in restaurants in State College, owned his own restaurant, managed hotels, developed and built new hotels, and worked in asset management for Host and Hilton.
“I always had a dream of teaching, and—having worked in hospitality management, from restaurants to large hotels—I’m able to share those experiences with students in the minor,” said Kidd, a Penn State alumnus. “While I was an undergraduate student at Penn State in the mid-1980’s, another hospitality management alumnus, Dan Schwartz, and I opened a restaurant in Stone Harbor, New Jersey. Many of our current students work or vacation there today, and it’s a great connection to have with them.”
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These courses and the interactions with hospitality management entrepreneurs light a spark for them, and they can see entrepreneurship and innovation as a path for their careers.
– Bill Kidd, director of the Hospitality Management ENTI cluster
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Courses in the minor use dynamic classroom exercises and experiences from alumni to help students connect the knowledge they are learning in the classroom to entrepreneurial ventures in the hospitality industry.
According to Donna Quadri-Felitti, associate professor and Marvin Ashner Endowed Director of the School of Hospitality Management, Kidd has brought a wealth of expertise to his role with the Hospitality Management ENTI minor and the department has expanded its offerings related to the program. They now offer a hospitality franchising course, as the United States hospitality industry leads in franchising entrepreneurship, and have expanded their facilities to include the SHM Collaboratory for Inclusion and Innovation, which fosters the goals of the minor for students of all backgrounds.
“By providing opportunities for the students to interact with entrepreneurial alumni in our Collaboratory, they can relate and see how powerful this knowledge is. These courses and the interactions with hospitality management entrepreneurs light a spark for them, and they can see entrepreneurship and innovation as a path for their careers,” Kidd said.
Students learn valuable lessons in the classroom
Louie Magliaro is a fourth-year student majoring in Hospitality Management and minoring in the Hospitality Management ENTI program. Magliaro was inspired to seek courses in entrepreneurship when his father pivoted from a career in the hospitality industry to start his own company.
“When I saw what my dad did, I was really wowed by how positively that affected our family, and as soon as I knew there was an opportunity to minor in entrepreneurship, it was a no-brainer for me.”
For Magliaro, the ENTI minor has encouraged him to take the skills and knowledge he has learned in the major and transfer them to real-life situations.
“I really learned that, at times, failure is going to have to be one of the options,” said Magliaro, who plans to pursue a career in asset management and eventually start his own business. “You might have to throw an idea away, alter it, or revisit it later. The ‘pivot to persevere’ approach is a huge asset in being an entrepreneur—and in life—and that really stuck with me.”
He has already started building experience, working in a number of restaurants during his summer breaks, and assisting with the Allinfoodz podcast at Penn State with Amit Sharma, professor of hospitality management and finance. Magliaro writes blogs for the podcast, which explores how people make choices about food and the impact of those choices.
I really learned that, at times, failure is going to have to be one of the options. You might have to throw an idea away, alter it, or revisit it later. The ‘pivot to persevere’ approach is a huge asset in being an entrepreneur —and in life—and that really stuck with me.
Alumni making waves in the industry
As a 2009 alumna with a degree in Hospitality Management, Sara Quinteros-Shilling intimately understands the value of entrepreneurship training in the industry. She and her husband, Reid Shilling, are owners of Shilling Canning Company, a restaurant in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
They opened the restaurant in 2019, less than a year before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Quinteros-Shilling used her education and experience to fill nearly every role at the business. They had the opportunity to be creative with their business model at the height of the pandemic, creating a fast-casual concept called AMPERSANDWICH at the same location, which could operate during times where social distancing was required. Now that pandemic restrictions are being rolled back and Shilling Canning Company is more established, her primary role is the director of business development, in which she manages the image of the restaurant and envisions where they want to go as a company.
Although the ENTI minor was not an option for her when she was an undergraduate, as it launched in 2013, Quinteros-Shilling said her time at Penn State gave her the tools to become a business owner, and she encourages current students to pursue entrepreneurship and leadership training.
“Penn State is great at creating students who go into the workforce unafraid to get their hands in the operation and learn the business,” said Quinteros-Shilling, who is an active member of the Penn State Hotel & Restaurant Society. “Regardless of what business you own, you have to be in it every single day, and I think Penn State instilled that in me. I was not afraid, I went in and figured out how to do it.”
Sara Quinteros-Shilling and her husband, Reid Shilling, opened Shilling Canning Company in 2019. The restaurant is listed in the Michelin Guide and was noted as a favorite place to eat by The Washington Post.
Quinteros-Shilling now wants to build on the success of Shilling Canning Company, which is listed in the Michelin Guide and was noted as a favorite place to eat by the popular Washington Post food critic, Tom Sietsema.
“I’m definitely proud of how far we’ve come. When we started this business, we were a young couple, we had a nine-month-old, and it involved very long days and nights. But we persevered, and I’m so proud that we were able to see our restaurant break into this industry and become a notable spot in a growing area,” she said. “And my time at Penn State prepared me to do that.”
Photo Credits
Hero image – visualspace via Getty Images
Louie Magliaro image courtesy of Louie Magliaro
Shilling Canning images (2) courtesy of Sara Quinteros-Shilling.
