From Classroom to Career: Building Hospitality’s Next Generation

Part I of a three-part series explores how meaningful internships can strengthen hospitality’s talent pipeline and give the next generation a clearer view of where a career in the industry can lead

By Whitney Altizer

Ask a college student what a career in hospitality looks like, and the answer may begin with the positions they can see: the general manager, the front desk associate, the event planner. What they may not see yet are the revenue strategists analyzing demand, sales leaders building relationships throughout a market, marketers shaping a hotel’s digital presence, engineers keeping complex buildings operating, or the many other professionals whose work comes together to create the guest experience.

For Newport Hospitality Group, helping students see the bigger picture is one of the most important things the industry can do to develop its next generation of leaders. It is also the idea behind this three-part editorial series. We look at internships not as temporary jobs or résumé builders, but as an important part of hospitality’s long-term talent strategy.

What happens when hotels and universities build genuine partnerships? What do students gain from meaningful exposure to the business? And how do those experiences translate into hospitality careers? As a proud alumnus of the Pamplin College of Business, I will answer those questions and pull back the curtain on our relationship with Virginia Tech and its Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality & Tourism Management.

More Than a Summer Job

In Newport’s internship program, students don’t simply arrive at a hotel, complete a list of assigned tasks, and leave a few months later. Newport’s Blacksburg team, led by Area Director of Sales & Marketing James Landrum, and supported by Hyatt Place Blacksburg/University General Manager Sarah Riggs and Residence Inn Blacksburg/University General Manager Kenny Rodgers, is woven into the students’ hospitality education. Both GMs report to James and are running these programs flawlessly while keeping up with daily operations.

On average, the three Newport leaders work with multiple Virginia Tech professors on campus at least three or four times each semester, serving as guest speakers in their classes. Then, students come into our hotels four to six times during that time span for hands-on learning sessions covering operations, engineering, front office, sales, marketing, and revenue management. Sarah, Kenny, and James also serve as judges for student presentations and competitions, while sales and marketing students join the hotels on sales blitzes to experience the dynamics of an actual sales call rather than simply reading about one.

The objective is exposure.

A student may arrive at a hotel convinced that she wants to become a wedding planner but then discovers an unexpected interest in revenue management. Another may know that he wants to become a general manager but has little understanding of why learning housekeeping, sales, or engineering will make him a stronger hotel leader. Many students don’t even know there’s a sales department in a hotel.

Exposing interns early to the many departmental possibilities matters. Too often, students are directed toward specific disciplines because they appear to be good at them, rather than being encouraged to ask a more important question first: Where do I want this career to take me? Our goal is to help students start answering that question before graduation.

The Hotel Becomes The Classroom

Newport’s Blacksburg hotels hire two paid interns each semester with opportunities spanning revenue management, sales and marketing, and other disciplines. Interns work no more than 20 hours per week during the semester, but their experience can go well beyond what students might associate with an internship.

They sit in at client meetings, learn interviewing and sales techniques, work with digital assets, participate in revenue-management discussions, and take ownership of special projects. One intern even developed an AI-based lead-generation system designed to help hotels share leads with one another. Others have contributed to website redesigns, sales communications, and client-facing initiatives.

The distinction is important: students aren’t merely observing hospitality. They are practicing it. Growing evidence shows that experiences like these make a difference.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers’ 2026 Internship & Co-op Survey found that employers converted 63.1% of their 2024-25 interns into full-time hires, the highest conversion rate in five years. Employers made full-time offers to 71.8% of eligible interns, and 88.3% accepted.

Students also report that the value of an internship goes well beyond securing an offer. In NACE’s 2024 Student Survey, 87.8% of graduating seniors with internships said they learned skills they would not have learned in the classroom, while 85.1% said they received sufficient supervisory support.

For an industry that depends so heavily on people, relationships, and experiential knowledge, those numbers deserve attention.

From Intern to Industry Professional

Newport has seen the results firsthand. Former interns from the Blacksburg program have gone on to full-time positions in sales, catering, and revenue management with major hospitality organizations.

For instance, one student (who readers will meet in Series II) spent two years interning with us and then moved into a commercial sales management role supporting both our hotels. Another transitioned from a sales internship into a revenue analyst role with Hyatt. Both received up to three leadership offers as they prepared to launch their careers. Others have gone on to positions including sales and catering management in Washington, D.C., and banquet management with Gaylord.

That kind of outcome reflects one of the most valuable aspects of a substantial internship: graduates can walk into their first professional interviews already understanding concepts and situations that many entry-level candidates have never encountered.

Interns learn about sales. They are exposed to revenue management. They understand digital marketing. They have interacted with clients and senior leaders. Perhaps most importantly, they have begun to understand how the pieces of a hotel fit together. That not only makes an internship valuable to the student, but it also makes the intern valuable to the industry.

Newport’s relationship with Virginia Tech also extends beyond the individual hotels. Newport President Wayne West III serves on the advisory board of Virginia Tech’s Howard Feiertag Department of Hospitality & Tourism Management, alongside senior leaders representing hospitality, travel, and related industries.

In addition, numerous Newport employees are Virginia Tech alumni and members of the university’s Maroon and Orange Club, an alumni organization that helps keep graduates engaged with the university and connected to the broader Hokie community. Continued involvement reinforces an important part of Virginia Tech’s culture: Ut Prosim, or “That I May Serve.” This philosophy carries naturally into hospitality and into Newport Hospitality Group’s commitment to developing the next generation of industry leaders. By staying closely connected to the university, its faculty and its students, Newport leaders are helping turn the alumni relationship into something tangible: mentorship, internships, industry exposure and, ultimately, career opportunities.

Continued alumni involvement sends an important message about the company’s view of talent development: university partnerships aren’t simply a recruiting responsibility. They deserve leadership attention. Corporate leaders also participate in the educational relationship, giving students opportunities to interact with executives and become comfortable communicating with people at different levels of an organization.

For students, that access can make the industry feel smaller, more understandable, and more attainable. For Newport, it creates something equally valuable: relationships with emerging professionals long before they enter the full-time job market.

Building the Pipeline Hospitality Needs

The hospitality industry’s talent challenge won’t be solved by waiting until graduation and competing for the same pool of candidates. Work must begin earlier when a freshman walks through the back of a hotel and realizes how many careers exist behind the guest experience.

Experience grows when a student accompanies a sales professional on a call, sits beside a revenue manager, presents an idea to industry judges, or talks with an executive without feeling intimidated by the title. Sometimes it comes full circle when that student graduates and is hired by one of the hospitality professionals he or she first met through the program.

In other college markets, such as Pittsburgh, Columbia, Jacksonville, and at the corporate office, Newport continues to give back to the industry with similar programs. Their goal is threefold: to fill individual vacancies, create a stronger pathway into hospitality, and develop graduates who arrive with a more complete understanding of the business.

Internships are often discussed in terms of what students receive: experience, connections, college credit, a paycheck or a line on a résumé. Those things matter. But the better question for hospitality may be “What does the industry receive when it invests deeply in interns?”

Newport’s experience in Blacksburg suggests an answer: more prepared candidates, stronger university relationships, and a pipeline of emerging leaders and young professionals who have already discovered that a hospitality career can take them much further than they initially imagined.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Whitney Altizer is Senior Vice President, Chief Commercial Officer, for Newport Hospitality Group. She leverages decades of experience in marketing, sales, and revenue management to provide integrated solutions and lead new initiatives. Altizer joined NHG in 2004 as director of sales and marketing at the Holiday Inn Blacksburg, VA. She holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration with a specialty in hospitality and tourism from Virginia Tech. She is certified through the Hospitality Marketing and Sales Assn. International (HSMAI) in revenue management, digital marketing, and sales.