Division of Administration and Finance
University Services
Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Lindsay Blagg
University Services
832.842.4722
lmblagg@central.uh.edu
HILTON COLLEGE STUDENTS GAIN EXPERIENCE AT CULLEN PERFORMANCE HALL
Houston, April 9, 2012 – Conrad Hilton College students are getting real world experience and
valuable training through a partnership between the college and Cullen Performance Hall (CPH).
The partnership began this year to create venue training and volunteer opportunities for two Hotel
and Restaurant Management (HRM) courses that will also give the participants an edge in their
future careers.
Lecturer Anthony Caterina teaches both the Facilities Management and Entertainment and Venue
Management courses at the Hilton College. He was looking for opportunities for his students to
get hands-on work in an actual facility and had approached several areas including UH’s athletics
and theatre departments as well as the Hobby Center in downtown Houston. When Tina
Newhauser became the Theater Manager at Cullen Performance Hall, the two worked together to
establish two programs for Hilton students in the nearby entertainment venue.
The first program included a class held at CPH where students learned about the venue itself and
its policies and procedures from CPH staff followed by a presentation on evacuation and fire
awareness training from UH’s Fire Marshal Joe Tremont. Then, students were given a list of
upcoming events where they could volunteer to usher and work alongside professionals in the
entertainment industry.
“Many of our students were impressed with the discussion. I hope to be able to provide this
presentation each year,” Caterina said. “I want students to know as they go into the hospitality
management they can reach out to a local fire department for help with such programs for their
staff. I explain to our students that the safety of their staff and customers is their number one
priority as they go forward in the industry. This presentation makes them aware of how quickly fire
can spread and why fire safety codes are important.”
The second program for the upper-level Entertainment and Venue Management course involves
crowd management training. First, the students must complete an online program provided by the
International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM). Then, they receive training within a facility,
in this case CPH, where they discover key terminology, fire and life safety codes as well as
audience types and their behavior patterns. Once completed, the students receive a certificate
that designates them as a “Certified Trained Crowd Manager,” a valuable inclusion on their
resume that could give them a boost during their job search.
“I find that offering the UH students firsthand real life working experiences opens their eyes to
what it actually takes to manage a public facility. Being able to quickly and safely solve problems
and emergency situations only comes through real life work experiences,” Newhauser said.
Caterina said along with his students getting real world experience with customers, he hopes it
will also open their eyes to other opportunities on campus, performances they may not have
otherwise seen, and will also teach them to look outside the box when they are searching for jobs
in the service industry. He said he hopes these experiences will also give them a connection to
the campus to make them better alumni.
“I want to say how grateful I am to CPH and the athletics department for giving our students the
opportunity, and if there are other programs out there looking to help, try reaching out to
colleagues on campus,” Caterina said. “When I got here, I had no contacts with the athletic
department and one with the theatre department. I picked up the phone, I sent out an email and
found opportunities for our student to get experience and help the university. This is what it is all
about.”
For more information on the Cullen Performance Hall, visit www.uh.edu/cph. For more
information on the Conrad Hilton College, visit www.hrm.uh.edu.
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston is a comprehensive national research institution serving the globally
competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning
and strategic industry partnerships. UH serves more than 38,500 students in the nation’s fourthlargest city, located in the most ethnically and culturally diverse region of the country.