Success Stories
Hospitality
Arts Graduate Plans a B&B for His Hometown Islet
by Gloria Biersdorff
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| Jerry Nathan will carry the expertise he gained in the Hospitality Management program back to his native Marshall Islands, where he plans to open a bed and breakfast. |
If you've penciled in a tropical vacation on your five-year planner, you may also want to jot down "Jaluit," an islet in the Ralik, or Sunset, chain of the Marshall Islands, about 2,000 miles southwest of Hawaii. Jerry Nathan, 2003 Lane Community College graduate in hospitality management, plans to open a 10-room bed and breakfast on the white sands of his native isle within the next four years.
Nathan, 29, left his parents and six siblings on the Marshall Islands in 1991 to attend Lane, on the prompting of an American friend who taught English at College of the Marshall Islands in Majuro. The friend told Nathan, "There's a nice place in Oregon called Eugene, a college there."
Nathan studied at Lane for one year, then married a Marshallese woman he met at a birthday party in Salem. He quit school and for the next decade worked to provide for his wife and three children. The places he worked -- on a poultry farm, at a recreational vehicle manufacturing plant -- inspired him to resume his education at Lane winter term, 2002. "I realized, if I don't go back to school I'm going to be doing labor jobs," says Nathan. "I see the boss walking around in a suit and tie, and I think, 'I can be one of them.'"
According to instructor Duane Partain, Nathan's determination and vision will serve him well in his future enterprise. "I think he can be successful at whatever he does. He has an 'I can do it' attitude. I think he's ready to stretch out. Hopefully we've prepared him for that."
The program typically enrolls 50 to 60 students representing at least half a dozen countries, says Partain. They practice classroom curricula in Lane's new conference center, and take field trips to local hotels. "The field trips really help," says Nathan. "The same things we're learning in school, they're doing in the industry."
Nathan, who
will return to Jaluit in June, says he's confident that the program's
comprehensive, practical training has equipped him to help his country
develop its nascent tourism industry, which is government-funded and controlled.
"I don't think Marshallese people go through hospitality classes,"
notes Nathan. "The government pulls business men to run the tourism
industry. I think this will be a big opportunity to get a job helping
them run that industry."
Located in the North Pacific region of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands
containing more than 1200 individual islands, 870 reef systems, 800 species
of fish, and 160 species of coral is one of the fastest growing regions
of tourism worldwide, according to the Republic of the Marshall Islands
website.
Classmate Randy Rawson, 43, says he believes Nathan's talent and training will be a great boost to the MI tourism industry. "Jerry is a very nice guy, and he's intelligent. I think one of Jerry's strengths is that he enjoys people and is very good at making people feel at ease. He's determined to change people's mind about having a reason to come to the Islands."
The hospitality management program offers both a two-year associate of applied science degree and a one-year certificate of completion. For more information call 463-3503, or visit: http://2011sitearchive.lanecc.edu/culinary/index.htm
