Recently, the students at Anaheim High School were greeted with an opportunity that few students were aware of, on January 22nd, a Wednesday morning, around 700 students gathered at Cook Auditorium for an assembly regarding opportunities in the hospitality field.

Most students had little to no clue as to what the hospitality field was or did. During the assembly, the students met three amazing people in the hospitality field, Phillip Patterson, Sophia Valdivia, and Star Hampton.

The special guests told their stories of their lives and explained how they got into the hospitality field. The guests not only told students about themselves and what they do but also informed students about careers most of them did not know existed.

Star Hampton was particularly successful at getting this message across to students. Hampton is a head chef at a hotel chain who is passionate about what she does. Through her passion and very energetic personality, she showed students that hospitality is another open door for students who are interested in careers such as chefs, architects, engineers, managers of hotels, etc. 

Once the assembly concluded, we asked students their thoughts on looking into careers in the hospitality industry. Most of their answers were very positive. Senior at Anaheim High School, Maricruz Baltazar said, “The assembly really sparked my interest in possibly looking into a career in the hospitality field, but I do not know for certain what career to be exact.” We also interviewed Junior at Anaheim High Tania Cruz, and she said, “The hospitality field interests me. But, I would need to research to see if the career I want to pursue pays well and applies in the hospitality field as well.”

After doing a little bit of research of our own, we highlighted nine careers in the hospitality field that students may be interested in pursuing. We gathered the starting salaries to not only get an idea of the different range of jobs but also to show students that they can make a good living from a career in hospitality.

The lowest paying career to start off with, which is a very common entry career in the hospitality field, is a tour guide paying $28,810 a year according to Glassdoor.com. However, this does not include the average $75 a day the guides get in tips. The highest paying career to start is an architect/engineer paying $72,649 a year also according to Glassdoor.com

Thanks to this assembly and the Orange County Visitors Association, students at Anaheim High School now know about another door they have wide open for their futures.