Creativity Challenge Winners

It has been a busy few weeks for Shannon College students! Not only did we have winners at the IHI Management Game in Dublin (read more here), but also Mark O’Shaughnessy, Year 4 Student, was on the winning creativity team at the recent Young Hoteliers Summit which took place in Switzerland recently. Congratulations Mark!

About the Young Hoteliers Summit

The Young Hoteliers Summit is a three day event hosted by Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, a leading hotel school in Switzerland. The Young Hoteliers Summit is the world’s largest hospitality conference organised by students for students. Over three days, students attended keynote speeches, workshops, company focus groups and a recruitment day focusing on employment and career development for young talents in the hospitality industry. Over 20 hotel schools from around the world were represented at the Summit this year, including a team of three from Shannon College of Hotel Management; Dara Kelleher, Mark O’Shaughnessy and Alexander Muir (pictured below).

Shannon College Team

The Creativity Challenge

The summit participants were divided into teams to compete in the Creativity Challenge. Hyatt Hotels and Resorts provided this year’s challenge which was to design a graduate programme for Hyatt Hotels and Resorts and present their innovative programme to a jury of Hyatt Executives. The winning team of six students from six different hotel schools, included Mark O’Shaughnessy, Shannon College of Hotel Management. The prize includes a trip to Dubai hosted by The Hyatt Hotel Dubai and a shadowing management opportunity for the team at the prestigious hotel.

At Irish Hospitality Institute Founders’ Banquet and Hospitality Management Awards last week, Shannon College graduates received the top awards across many categories: 

Lewis Quinn
Graduate of 2010
Hospitality Graduate of the Year

Gillian Chambers
Graduate of 1993
Human Resources Manager of the Year

Shane Downey
Graduate of 2005
Young Hospitality Manager of the Year

Edward Stephenson
Graduate of 1989
Enrolled to the College of Fellows

Anthony Moloney
Graduate of 1999
Nominated for Environmental Manager of the Year

The prestigious awards ceremony was held at the Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin and were presided over by this year’s President of the IHI, Fergal O’Connell. Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Leo Varadkar, T.D. was the Guest of Honour and officially opened the ceremony, commenting “hospitality is the bedrock of the tourism industry, so it’s only appropriate to honour those who have made an outstanding contribution in this field over the past year. The nominees, and the recipients, have achieved the highest levels of excellence in the hospitality sector.”

Photograph
Back Row L to R: 
Phillip J. Smyth (Director, Shannon College), Deborah O’Hanlon (Placement and Operations Manager, Shannon College)
Front Row, L to R:
Shane Downey (Graduate of 2005), Gillian Chambers (Graduate of 1993), Lewis Quinn (Graduate of 2010)

An innovative online homework project designed by Ms Danielle Martin, German Lecturer at Shannon College of Hotel Management, was awarded the prestigious European Language Label 2011 earlier this month. Only eight Language Labels were awarded this year to projects and learners who demonstrate innovation in language teaching and learning. Of the eight awards, only one was granted to a Higher Education Institution in Ireland; Shannon College of Hotel Management! Congratulations to Ms Danielle Martin who designed and implemented the project!

What is the Online German Homework Submission Wiki?

The Online German Homework Submission website (wiki) preserves students’ homework, enhance correction and ultimately improve students’ German written accuracy.

How does it work?

Students submitted homework in the online wiki and it was corrected using a variety of colours to add clarity to the correction. Whenever a common error was made, the word was highlighted and a hyperlink was created to an explanatory page. Teachers’ comments and feedback were also stamped on the correction.

What are the advantages?

• The turnaround time for correction was reduced.

• All corrected homework was preserved in individual student homework folders, for students’ exam revision.

• The common errors were easily extracted and could be taught in the classroom, making the focus on improving written accuracy more tailored to the students and their idiomatic and grammar difficulties.

• The wiki was used as a classroom website.

• It was also useful for absent students in completing their homework assignments. All lesson plans and hand-outs were also uploaded into the wiki in MS Word or PDF format.

Further Information:

Please contact Ms. Danielle Martin directly if you would like to find out more about the project.

Ms. Danielle Martin
Lecturer – German, Business Information Systems
Ph: 061 712210
Email: daniellemartin@shannoncollege.com