‘You Will Never Give More than You Receive’
With the job market tightening, hundreds of hospitality students were eager to get directions to a successful career from Joe Martin, the 50th Distinguished Visiting Professor (DVP) to The Hospitality College.

Martin, the 2009 chairman of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA ) and a 27-year veteran of the industry, offered insight from his own experience and a birds-eye view: Be part of a team, know yourself and be comfortable with yourself; connect with everyone and think about the value you can provide, he advised.

Martin encouraged the audience to volunteer and serve others. As the owner-operator of Stillwater Hospitality LLC of Oklahoma, Martin noted, “My desire is to be able to make a difference in the community in which I live and work … As you get involved in organizations and the community, you will never give more than you will receive.”

He emphasized that employers want potential employees who can be part of a team. “It’s invaluable in today’s business world,” he said. “It is important to those looking for talent.”

Reflecting on the 2009 Super Bowl, he said the Pittsburgh Steelers may not be the best team — but as a team, the players had the “faith and trust” in one another that made them able to win. “Eighty percent of leadership is earning the respect of your co-workers.”

From Africa to Einstein
The horrors of war were brought to campus in February when Ishmael Beah, author of “A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” spoke about his adolescence in Sierra Leone. As part of the John Hazen White School of Arts & Sciences’ Cultural Life Series, Beah recalled his experiences when the country’s civil war claimed his family, and Beah and his friends were forced to join the Sierra Leone Army or be killed. Using the boys’ desire for revenge and a steady supply of drugs, the government military indoctrinated children into a culture of violent brutality. Beah realized at age 11 that to live, he must kill others.

UNICEF freed Beah from the army when he was 13. Finding a long-lost uncle, cousins and counseling proved to be his salvation. Representing UNICEF at the United Nations gave him hope that his story, along with thousands of others, could enlighten the rest of the world to the boy soldiers’ plight. Beah now lives in New York City. He uses his speaking opportunities to talk about the inhumanities of war, urging all to have the “strength and courage to resist violence.”

Days earlier, as part of the same A&S cultural series, theoretical physicist Alan Lightman, author of “Einstein’s Dreams,” noted the surprising similarities between scientists and artists. Both, he told students, seek beauty, crave simplicity and want to name things, such as paintings and theories. Lightman urged his audience to “find something you love to do. Find something you are passionate about. Only when you have passion are you truly alive.”