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My name is Stephanie Hurla and I am the director of operations with Ameristar casino. I chose
the hospitality management field because I love the industry. It is a stable career,
no day is ever the same and that is what I enjoy the most about the hospitality industry,
and in particular the hotel career choice. The hospitality program had just begun when
I was graduating from high school and it was a perfect choice, it was actually what they
call a no brainer for me. I did a little bit of research on the hotel career and management
programs and stumbled upon Johnson County's which is right here in my own backyard. Once
I looked at their program I was in love with it from the beginning so I chose Johnson County
simple because of the opportunities that it could provide. I could stay close to home,
it worked well with the metropolitan colleges in the area, it had a great campus and those
that I had met going into it were wonderful so it was pretty much a happy marriage from
the beginning. There are tons of memories from the program; I can remember chef Sweeny
saying "Time is money! Time is money! Time is money!" everything had to be organized
in the kitchen, everything had to be clean. I ate caviar for the first time in the program;
I went to the Mccormick food show out in Chicago and that was an experience all in its own.
Las Vegas, I got to tour the MGM Grand I got to tour the UNLV campus. The memories are
endless because there are certain things that I will still recall to this day that'll pop
up because of my time in the program with Johnson County Community College. And now
I am the director of hotel operations at Ameristar hotel and casino. I have been here at the
property for ten years. I was promoted to director of hotel operations about two years
ago now, I have spent time at several other properties here in the Kansas city area. Ameristar
has become my home and with Johnson County Community College I still interact with them
regularly. I still sit on the board of the education foundation for Johnson County so
that I can give back and someday help someone get to the level that I am at now. Going through
the program there are still some of the things that I have to this day. I still have some
of the textbooks, I can still reference. The contacts I think are the most important piece
that I have; there are still some of the people that I keep in contact with to this day. There
are things that I learned when I was in the program that I still take with me today and
there are different things from a menu planning class or from the food planning classes that
I took that are very important to what I do today and very impertinent to what is going
on in the industry or just my day to day operation here. Just recently I was awarded the Facility
Service Excellence award which recognizes those who have basically worked their way
up through the industry so from a desk clerk on up to where I am at now, the director of
hotel operations and with the Facility Service Excellence award it was a great honor. Especially
because there are people that don't even necessarily work with me, the day to day operations that
think so highly of me. It was a true honor.