Fleming College

Grad Highlight: Tyler Lovenuk, Hotel and Restaurant Management, Class of 2013

“Casa de Campo Resort & Villas is a magnificent 7,000 acre resort on the shores of the Caribbean Sea in the Dominican Republic. We have beautiful beaches, amazing dining options and a myriad of activities that you can do while staying with us. My job as Regional Director of Sales, based in Ottawa, is to travel all over and meet with people to get them excited about it, so that they will choose us for their next trip. I also spend a lot of time working with our corporate clients to organize conferences at Casa de Campo with companies from around the world. My most memorable experience thus far would be attending a sold out concert in our 5,000 seat outdoor amphitheatre in Altos de Chavon, our 16th Century Mediterranean village that feels like Italy.

The Hotel and Restaurant Management (since renamed “Hospitality”) program at Fleming has a very hands-on approach. We were given the chance to experience life in the hospitality industry over the course of all three years of the program, which is key because you can’t experience the industry unless you’re seeing with your own eyes how the relationships work between guests and the property where they are staying. My program coordinator always encouraged us to reach out to industry professionals in all aspects of our education.

After graduating from Fleming, I took advantage of the new articulation agreements signed between Colleges Ontario and Ireland. I travelled to Ireland where I completed my Bachelors of Business in Tourism and Hospitality Management at the Athlone Institute of Technology. Combining the hands-on, real world education I received from Fleming, the theoretical and international approach from Ireland and the network of people I met during my studies, I was hired for this amazing resort in the Dominican Republic.

The hospitality industry, in my opinion, is the best industry to be in because it’s the one industry that is truly global. I’ve had the chance to meet people from every corner of the earth and each person brings their own unique story, which adds to the mix. The hospitality program at Fleming encompasses all of it and brings it to the classroom. It prepares students to enter the industry after graduation and prepares them to be the leaders of tomorrow.”