Hospitality Students Receive Award for Sustainability Entry

Buffalo State students in the hospitality and tourism program took first place for a poster presentation at the 85th world conference of the Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) last month.

Students Makayla Bidell, Karen Coughlin, and Alex Davis, members of Buffalo State’s student chapter of the CMAA, entered the CMAA’s Club of the Future student research competition that was held at the conference. Their entry, “Breathe Easy, $ave Money: Sustainability in the Club House,”  researched wind energy, solar water heating, and rain water collection as strategies for improving energy use in private club facilities. The project was submitted to the category “sustainability,” one of five categories.

“The Club of the Future Award program gives student members the opportunity to share their ideas of what private clubs will look like five, ten or 15 years from now,” said Kathleen O’Brien, director of Campus House, lecturer in the hospitality and tourism program, and faculty adviser to the CMAA student chapter. “By winning, our students had the opportunity to present their ideas in a manager-education session at the conference.”

Other students who attended the conference were Dan Cycon, Nadine Dittmar, Bonnie Lambert-Wall, and Trevor Thomas. “We are very proud of the dedication and scholarship our students demonstrated,” said O’Brien.