Tyler Grace Hunt

Kelly Simmons

Hunt, originally from Atlanta, Ga., tends the coffee station at the Bulldog Bistro.
Photographer Shannah Montgomery

One of the first students in UGA’s Hospitality and Food Industry Management (HFIM) degree program, Tyler Grace Hunt also was one of the first with an internship at the UGA Center for Continuing Education & Hotel.

It was fall 2020, five months into the COVID-19 pandemic. The hotel was closed, staffed only to house UGA students who needed to quarantine. There was no meal service, other than orders for students in quarantine, left outside their hotel room doors. There were no in-person conferences, events or classes.

But there was an opportunity that few other interns would have, Hunt realized, there was time to get to know the center’s employees and talk to them about their experience in the hospitality industry.

It was a living experience, which I think worked out great.

Hunt, who graduated in 2022. “I was able to spend a lot more time learning from employees because we weren’t in the constant bustle of the hotel. I was hearing about their time at the Georgia Center or what they learned from other places and brought to the Georgia Center.”

Hunt now works the front desk, is a runner and a trainer at the French Quarter Resort at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. She was hired as a full-time employee in 2023 after participating in the Disney College program, a competitive, paid internship for college-aged students.

Soon after she got to the French Quarter she realized she had learned a valuable lesson while at the Georgia Center: how to drive a 10- or 12-passenger van. As a part-time front desk employee she would sometimes be asked to drive athletes, who eat their meals at the center, to other locations on campus.

As a part-time runner at the resort, she wished she had a van to help complete errands faster. Since the bell service employees had a 12-passenger van to transport luggage, she suggested they share it. Soon, part of the training for new front desk employees included learning how to drive the van.

“A lot of employees are not comfortable with that vehicle,” she says. “I’m able to put my trainees at ease.”