It was another summer of success for IHG® Army Hotels Teen Academy. Since 2016, participating IHG Army Hotels have offered the paid summer internship to the dependents of our hotel team members. For a second year, the program is also open to the dependents of military personnel living on post.
Teen Academy is a great opportunity to develop kids into future leaders even if they don’t necessarily have the means or desire to go to college right away. The program also provides additional help for the hotels during the busy summer travel months so we can keep providing the 5-star hospitality we’re known for.
This summer, 86 teens took part in Teen Academy, which was held in 16 hotels across the country. Most of the teens came from colleague families while roughly a third came from military families. For eight weeks, participants in Teen Academy work in several jobs including housekeeper, house person, laundry assistant, breakfast attendant, maintenance* and front desk*. In addition to gaining valuable work experience, the teens learn about different aspects of the hospitality industry from on-the-job training.
A teen named Dyani worked in maintenance at one of our hotels on Fort Leavenworth. In her end-of-the-term essay, she describes what it meant to work for Vicky McLaughlin, the only female Maintenance Manager on the team:
“It only took those two weeks for me to feel at home in the department, despite it being full of men, but I had a person to look up to, Vicky. Not only the only girl but the head of the department? Could anyone not be inspired? Vicky truly made me feel included in Maintenance whenever she talked to us in a group, and I loved every little story she had to tell me.”
Teen Academy also includes at least one community service project, so the interns learn the importance of giving back. Past project beneficiaries have included the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which helps provide mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children.
Teen Academy has been a big success for the interns personally and professionally. Many graduates have begun careers in the hospitality industry while others have excelled in post-secondary education—with several winning the Steve Porter Memorial Scholarship. Established in 2010 by IHG, the scholarship honors the memory of Steve Porter, who served as President of IHG Americas from 2002 to mid-2008. It is awarded annually to children of IHG colleagues working in hotels, reservations centers and corporate offices.
Teen Academy is a part of the greater IHG Academy, which helps local residents develop skills and find employment opportunities in one of the world’s largest hotel companies. A core pillar of their Corporate Responsibility strategy, the IHG Academy helps build sustainable communities around IHG hotels worldwide.
For more information on IHG’s work outreach programs, visit IHGAcademy.com.
*Certain positions have age and supervisory restrictions.
Rest Easy is the owner, design-builder, asset manager, and the exclusive developer for the Privatization of Army Lodging (PAL) portfolio, the Department of Defense’s only lodging privatization program. IHG Hotels & Resorts is the hotel operator and manager of IHG Army Hotels.