Aidan Lenhardt

Kelly Simmons

Lenhardt, a Snellville, Ga., native poses in front of a food outlet she oversees as part of the Marriott Voyage training program.
Submitted photo.

Aidan Lenhardt describes herself as quiet and shy when she began her freshman year at the University of Georgia, following four years at a private Christian school.

“UGA was a culture shock,” she says.

The Snellville native planned to major in finance and international business, “but I realized my brain didn’t work like that.” She created a PowerPoint Presentation outlining what she was interested in and invited her friends to help her decide on a major.

They quickly saw a pattern: hotels and tourism. She turned to Hospitality and Food Industry Management.

Her first internship at the UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel, a living lab for UGA HFIM students, was in housekeeping, mostly out of sight from the guests.

Her mentor, a Georgia Center administrator, plucked her out of the back and put her on the hotel’s front desk.

It was everything I wanted. I learned how to interact with guests, and with people in general.

“You’re quite literally forced to talk to anybody who came into the hotel.”

These days, Lenhardt is in the Marriott Voyage management and leadership training program, overseeing two food outlets in the Naples, Fla., J.W. Marriott Hotel. She manages about 30 employees, most older than her and most of whom have worked at the resort for 15-20 years.

And that’s okay, she says, because many of her co-workers at the Georgia Center were older and more experienced. Some were also from other countries and spoke little English, which is a challenge at the J.W. Marriott in south Florida as well.

Her mentor “introduced me to people working at the Georgia Center in every department,” Lenhardt said.

“That was really helpful to me. They created an environment where the communication was comfortable.”