Special guest at SHF, Sylvain Boussard a french food and berevage teacher
At the beginning of this month, The Sumba Hospitality Foundation was lucky enough to welcome a special guest to our campus. Sylvain Boussard is a Food and Beverage teacher from France, who has a particular interest in wine. He came to our school to deliver a 2-week introductory wine course for our Restaurant and Bar Students. This consisted of daily classes about the production and background of wine and also an introduction to the different flavors associated with varying wines. These concepts were alien to our students before receiving Sylvain’s training course; it was such a pleasure to welcome him to our campus and especially to watch the students flourish with their newfound knowledge; they were provided with essential skills in their department, ones which will set them apart as interns, furthermore as employees, in the future. Thank you again, Sylvain!
The 1st semester is over, it’s time for holidays
September brought a much-deserved break for everybody at SHF; the end of the first semester arrived, resulting in both students and staff excitedly taking off on their holidays. The students went back to their villages to reconnect with their families; they told stories of their new environment, encompassing tales of their new friends and teachers. They were all so excited and full of pride to share their achievements and experiences during their first semester. The staff took this opportunity to relax and explore; some went traveling to destinations such as Dubai, Thailand, even as far as Europe, whilst others stayed locally, visiting the beautiful islands surrounding Sumba. Two weeks passed quickly and before we knew it, we were back together again, eager to bring life back into our campus.
First Conference at our school campus for Sumba Tourism Development Plan
This month, we held our very first conference at our school campus – The SSTDP (Sumba Tourism Development Plan). It was a fantastic event, which allowed us to create a roadmap alongside local and international stakeholders. The campus was buzzing with visitors, our bar and restaurant came alive, not forgetting our guest pavilions, which were fully booked; it was a perfect opportunity for our students to utilize their newly learned skills and everybody was stunned by their performance. The most inspiring part about the weekend was that all of the attendees joined together at the conference for a united purpose – to discuss the development of tourism in Sumba, and more importantly, the ways in which tourism can be achieved in a responsible and sustainable way.
