PETER BARNETT '03
College is the time in our life when we look toward the future
and decide what we want to do the rest of our life. Dana College
was the place I decided to grow and get my elementary education
degree. In addition to classes, I was assigned to work for the food
service as part of my work study. I decided that two years at a
fast food restaurant during high school was enough time working
around food, so I chose not to work for Sodexho Marriot. Dana College
brought about many changes in my life. One change was the decision
to leave the elementary education program and move into the business
administration program. Along with this change of majors, I decided
that the employees of Sodexho Marriot were nice, friendly people
and that I wanted to be part of that extended family.
In January of 2000, I became a part-time employee up in the Dining
Hall. Interim served as a good time to start since there wasn't
a large class load to worry about. As second semester started, I
found myself still enjoying my time in the Dining Hall. Summer then
came around and as fast as it came it left. I came back to Dana
early to help out feeding the Dana Athletic teams and RAs. New to
me was the general manager. Over the summer, Jim Falk became our
general manager. His experience with Sodexho Marriot started to
show as soon as I met him. In October of 2000, Jim promoted me to
student manager. I began to learn how to become an effective manager,
and was given more responsibility. As the years continued to go
by, I found myself enjoying my time with Sodexho. I decided to devote
more time to this job opportunity and began to work full time and
had a part-time class load.
As Interim of 2003 started to approach, I talked with both Jim
Falk and James Smith, my advisor, about the possibility of doing
an internship with Sodexho. I wanted to dive deep into the role
of management and learn some of the Sodexho business and accounting
tools. They both agreed that this would be a good step in my education
and it was set up. Among many things, my largest responsibility
was to put together a client board report. This report was to be
sent to Dr. Christopherson, Mr. Bob Schmoll, our district manager
and our regional vice president, to name a few. This project took
a great deal of time, but I matured in my ability to put together
a quality report and also got to look at how the financial figures
looked. With help from Jim Falk and the staff of Sodexho, especially
Pat West, Sodexho most recognized employee and a wonderful proofreader,
the report was completed and sent to all parties. A few months later
we received word that the report was selected to be one of the top
five reports put together for our region. This was a great honor
and a nice pat on the back. The whole month of January that year
taught me a lot about how business worked and the goals and principles
at Sodexho. I finished the internship with a desire to stay within
the Sodexho organization and began to look for a job come March.
That brings me to the present. I am currently a dining services
manager at Carleton College. Carleton College is a college in Northfield,
Minn. I found myself working underneath another great manager with
many years of experience, like Jim Falk. Here at Carleton, my desire
to work for Sodexho has been reassured and my new general manager,
Joe Winegardner, has began the steps to help me pursue my goals
to stay with Sodexho and to climb the ladder of management success
within the company. I am very glad Dana had the programs available
to help me gain perspective on what I want to do professionally.
As I look back, Interim played a large part in giving me confidence
in what I do today, and for that I am thankful.
—Peter Barnett '03
Northfield, Minn.
|
