Event Management, Tourism and Hospitality
B.S. Event Management (2013). Currently enrolled in the M.S. program for Hospitality & Tourism Management.
Dignity Memorial; Orlando Florida and The Orlando Magic (Orlando, FL)
Licensed Funeral Director, Location Manager of two locations and Funeral Director in Training Coordinator for Florida. I have been with Dignity Memorial since May 2013.
I am on the committee for the “Walk for Wishes” that benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Central Florida. I am also on the Ronald McDonalds volunteer team in Lake Nona (new home to be opened early 2017).
I completed my Associateu2019s Degree at the State College of Florida in Venice, Florida in 2010. After graduating from SCF and being accepted into UCF, I moved to Central Florida. The transition from a state college to a university was easier than expected, and UCF was very welcoming and an exciting place to be when I arrived.
When I lived in the Venice area, I worked as a restaurant manager for a chain. When I moved to Central Florida, I was fortunate enough to be offered a transfer position at a location on I-92 in Kissimmee, Florida. I continued my management position full time, as well as being offered a part time position with the Orlando Magic in their new arena that opened in 2010. My work taught me a lot about organization and balance, and when I was ready to change careers, my past employment history set me up as a desirable applicant.
When I started at UCF, I was working in restaurants, and restaurants were all I really knew. Although I could run a shift blindfolded, I wanted something greater. I wanted a career that was challenging, rewarding and ever changing. I had never dreamed of being in the death care industry, and never thought of it as part of hospitality or events. However, in 2013, in my last class at UCF, I met a dear friend named Jaynee. We started speaking about our career paths, and she informed me that she was a Funeral Director. I became very interested, and she invited me to shadow her and learn some more about the industry. Within the next few days, I had fallen in love with the career path she had chosen, and I saw how rewarding it was. I decided to leave the restaurant field and take a leap of faith. Within a month, I was hired at Dignity Memorial, and they had enrolled me in Mortuary School. I learned something new every day, and no two days were the same. I realized that being a funeral director was more related to events than I ever imagined. I compare it to being a wedding planner and having to organize all the same details; however, you have about two days to do it, multiple families at one time, and you have to arrange burial or cremation on top of the services. I love what I am doing, I love that it is very fast pace, incredibility versatile, and incredibly challenging.
In my last year at UCF for my undergrad, I had the opportunity to take Professor Avery’s Risk Management course. Till this day, I find it the most useful and powerful class at UCF. I learned a massive amount about the industry and how to protect the people around me. There is not a week that goes by that I don’t think about some aspect that I learned from that class, and I am eternally grateful for it.