Through WCCUSD’s Ivy League Connection program, Hercules High School Students Justine Betschart, Stacy Chan, Ramiah Davis-Shephard, Louisa Man, Julia Maniquiz, and Yueming Wang will be attending Cornell University to either study Freedom and Justice or Hotel Operations Management during the summer of 2009.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

What the future entails

Up to this point, we have been mainly focusing on what happened to the hotel industry in the past and what is currently happening right now. Today, we were exposed to more of a future-oriented topic -- forecasting.

I found this topic to be extremely interesting. Not only can we predict the success of the hotel in the future, we also learned to analyze various data recorded and use those data to evaluate performance. So far, we learned a lot about the different business strategies that would enable a hotel to be more profitable. Now we can finally dissect the pros and cons of each business strategy in order to find the optimal mix.

To follow up on the statistic analysis, we also had a lecture on the basics of Microsoft Excel 2007. We learned how to use basic functions from creating new sheets to applying pre-designed formulas to using pivot tables.

It is so exciting to learn that after transferring data to Excel, a few buttons pressed here and there can provide the user excellent analysis of statistic information. And with that information, we can learn more about the future and to make the best of what will inevitably come.

~ Yueming W.

2 comments:

  1. Yueming, statistical forecasting is fine, but sometimes stuff happens. I am glad that you provided us a detailed summary about went on in class. However, I hope that you can send an additional email this evening that parallels what was written by Justine and Julia.

    Take a look at their post and then share your opinions and views about how this experience compares with being a student at Hercules High School. I want to know if this program makes a difference? How do the students compare with the students back home? Do we provide a rigorous enough curriculum? what class would you compare this to at Hercules?

    Who is your roommate, what does she value or what does she believe? Is she conservative or someone who believes that programs like the Ivy League Connection are needed and worthwhile? Have you shared how you got into the Ivy League Connection with others and do they have the ability to comprehend why we even have the program?

    Let me read more than just how you learned new prgramming devices. These are fine, but our supporters and sponsors want more MEATY data than how you have gained more knowledge.

    The one thing that I find interesting with all of you in the Hotel Program is that all of my emails seem to have been not used at all within the context of the class. I need to know if I was off the mark. I do not want to give students in the future irrelevant information. So give me some feedback.

    Also what is your impression of the East Coast and do you see even applying to an Ivy League School? Take me through your thoughts and give me your take on what it is like to live at Mary Donlon Hall.

    Enjoy your evening.

    Charles T. Ramsey, Esq.
    School Board Member
    West Contra Costa
    Unified School District

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  2. Yueming,

    I know you’ve only wet your beak so far but isn’t Excel one of the coolest applications around?

    In all of these predictions you’ve been studying, have they touched on predicting or forcasting how to get regular people back into hotels during a down economy?

    One of the reasons why outfits like PriceLine.com and Hotels.com are succeeding is that people have their own threshold about how much they’re willing to pay and can’t won’t go higher. From the perspective of the hotels, an empty room generates no revenue so renting the space even at a discount is better than nothing. And from the community’s perspective, they get no occupancy tax revenue when the room sit empty.

    These outfits need to sell the public on their product so when they travel they automatically think only of that chain and don’t bother to shop around for a better deal. Brand recognition is critical in this business.

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