Hear From Our Previous Scholarship Winners 

This month, AEF prepares to reach a big milestone: $100,000 awarded in scholarships since 2015! To mark the momentous occasion, we decided to connect with previous scholarship winners to hear how the AEF scholarship impacted their college and career journey. Click the banner to get to know Makayla, Britney, and Deranique.

Please join us in celebrating their accomplishments since graduation! 

You can help future AEF scholars by donating to the AEF Scholarship Fund this May when we announce the 2022 scholarship winners. Your support will help students and alumni of DC’s four Academies of Hospitality and Tourism, two Academies of Culinary Arts, and Academy alumni in higher education.

Since March 14, nine students from six DC high schools have been interning at three area hotel properties and learning about career opportunities in the hotel industry as part of the DC Public School's Career Bridge Internship program.

In addition to professional development trainings provided by AEF, we want to thank you to our partners, the AC Hotel Downtown, Hyatt Place National Mall and Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill, for hosting interns.

Christell Miranda Lopez, a senior in the Academy of Hospitality and Tourism at Columbia Heights Educational Campus, is interning at the AC Hotel Washington DC Downtown. She says her experience has been fascinating.

“I really appreciate that everyone is so welcoming. I love being part of the AC Hotel family and it's my pleasure to work with them. This internship motivates me to work hard to be part of the hospitality industry after I graduate.”

Christell’s mentor is Martha Valenzuela, Director of Sales at the hotel. Martha highly recommends the program to any employer.

“It has been a rewarding experience for all of us. We embrace the partnership with AEF in developing new talent with an interest in hospitality to showcase the many career opportunities our hotel has to offer new candidates. We love helping young people build themselves within our industry."

AEF welcomes its inaugural Board of Directors. These 15 leaders represent hospitality businesses throughout national and local businesses. They support AEF’s mission to cultivate the next generation of hospitality professionals through engagement of our workforce development initiatives, hosting interns, determining our scholarship winners, development and fundraising, and raising awareness of AEF in the community. We thank them for their service.

Save the date this summer to support AEF through an incredible celebration!

You’ll enjoy a perfect view of the fireworks, meet our 2022 scholarship winners and engage with leaders from the hospitality and tourism industry and the meeting planning sector.

The event is fun for the whole family.

Here are three ways to get involved:

1. Purchase a ticket for you, your colleagues, friends and family to attend
2. If you are unable to attend yourself, donate a ticket for our scholarship winners and their families
3. Partner with AEF to bring your organization’s brand and recognition to the event

Congratulations to all the NatsPrep students from Ballou, Columbia Heights Educational Campus, Jackson-Reed, Roosevelt, and Woodson high schools!

Over the past seven months, 10 students learned what it takes to run a Major League Baseball team: corporate partnership tactics, special event planning, baseball operations, and all of the professionals it takes.

The program culminated in a sales pitch to a panel of Washington Nationals executives and AEF senior manager Lisa Waldschmitt by each school on their marketing plan to sell Nationals tickets to their peers.

Thank you to the entire Nationals team, most especially Alex Robbins, Director of Community Relations, for building this unique opportunity for DC Academy students.

Last month, you met Destination DC’s intern, Nana Sissoko.

Interested in hosting an intern during the 2022-2023 school year? Sign up now to be a host employer for the District of Columbia Career and Technical Education Network's Advanced Internship Program.

Interns work 12 hours per week from September through May and come from a variety of academic backgrounds including hospitality and tourism, IT, finance, mass media and communications and more.

Registration closes Tuesday, May 21. Contact AEF to learn more.

Did you miss the Preparing Yourself for a Career in Sports panel with the Atlantic 10 Conference featuring Lacey Bruins, Mark Hyman, Jen Montgomery and Pro Football Hall of Famer Darrell Green?

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