Community Involvement

Are you a community partner and are interested in participating in an event, class or guest speaking for up-and-coming hospitality professionals? Are you hoping that we can help provide a service for your business or organization? Do you want to hire our graduates or participate in internships? Great!

Community service is an integral part of our mission. BSCI firmly believes that being an outstanding community steward is a vital part of the student experience and helps to motivate and retain students and faculty. This being said, because we only have a limited amount of time, students, and resources, we cannot participate or help with every request we receive. Here are our guidelines for choosing who to partner with:

  • The event, activity or partnership must help develop the students' skills as leaders, mentors, and culinarians.  The activity must directly correlate with student learning outcomes that are being covered during that part of their curriculum. Example: We actively seek to participate in catering events when the students are enrolled in Catering Management.
  • We need to see a return on our investment, and not necessarily monetary.  Even though donations are amazing to help our student population, a return on our investment may also include the ability to recruit students and faculty or provide a dynamic learning experience the students would not get in the classroom. For faculty demonstration requests, this experience must help promote professional growth as educators.
  • The relationship must go both ways and be able to surpass the initial request.  We like being friends for the long run. So, we will not accept requests for partnerships that do not benefit our program over time or will only be a one-time request.

Donations

Many of our students undergo financial hardship during their time as students. Many are non-traditional and are working professionals and/or parents who are trying to make ends meet while going back to school. Donating to a scholarship fund or student support fund is a gift that will help elevate not only the student, but also the economy by providing more trained food service professionals to the local economy. There are many ways you can give:

  • Create a scholarship or endowment in your name for deserving students.
  • Donate to a student and programmatic fund to help purchase equipment, fund student activities and help with faculty professional growth.
  • Donate equipment, new or used, for students to learn on.
  • Donate your time by helping to teach classes as a guest chef and act as a mentor for a student.

All donations are tax deductible. If you are interested in giving, please contact the University of Montana Foundation or call Culinary Program Director Aimee Elliott at 406-243-7880.