The Perfect Fit
With its 99% post-graduation job placement rate, the L. Robert Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management is in high demand. It is a perfect fit for an industry that drives San Diego’s economy, which is why it is an attractive investment for the region’s business community. Based on her experience with her own successful company, San Diego civic volunteer and philanthropist Patti Roscoe recognized the school’s need to attract top researchers and eminent scholars. Her gift funded an endowed professorship in the Institute for Meetings and Events, securing the Payne School’s excellence into the future.
The school has a reputation for personalized programming that develops talented professionals who become innovative leaders in the hospitality and tourism industry. The industry, San Diego’s second-largest, maintains a close connection to Payne School faculty, many of whom are working practitioners leading classes that reflect the realities of their everyday experiences. At the forefront of emerging trends, they help ensure graduates are workforce-ready.
Amplifying the Impact
The U.S.S. Midway Museum is a symbol of the enduring relationship between San Diego and its military community. The ship sits in the harbor of a region that boasts more than 110,000 active duty service members and is home to more than 240,000 veterans. The U.S. military/defense industry is easily the number one sector of the area’s economy and hundreds of thousands of military-connected jobs account for an impressive amount of the workforce in the region.
Aligned with the needs of this community, SDSU provides a number of education programs and research opportunities to serve almost 5,000 military-affiliated students on its San Diego campus. Acknowledging the university’s role in educating the military community, the USS Midway Foundation made a $3 million, five-year pledge to create and fund an endowed chair in modern U.S. military history at SDSU. The gift makes SDSU the only public university on the West Coast with an interdisciplinary program in modern U.S. military history.