Hotel and Restaurant Administration Senior Wins National Scholarship, Award

PULLMAN, Wash. — A senior in hotel and restaurant administration at Washington State University won a $5,000 national lodging management scholarship and a $2,500 national award from the conference center industry.

Laura Luehrs of Kennewick won the 2001 Arthur J. Packard Memorial Scholarship from the American Hotel and Lodging Foundation and the 2001 Marriott/International Association of Conference Centers’ Deserving Student Grand-in-Aid Award.

Luehrs will receive a plaque at the AH&LF board of directors meeting in New York City Nov. 10. She also will have the opportunity to attend the International Hotel/Lodging and Restaurant Show that takes place that weekend.

In 2000, Dawn Davidson of WSU was second in the Packard competition, in which universities with AH&LF-affiliated four-year programs can nominate one student annually.

Luehrs received the Marriott/International Association of Conference Centers’ award at the IACC annual conference at the Woodlands Resort in Houston in March. Her work as a summer 2000 intern in the sales office at Marriott’s Evergreen Conference Resort in Georgia contributed to her receiving the award. Margaret Bergerac, senior sales manager at the resort, said Luehrs was the best intern she has ever seen at the hotel.

Luehrs has a 4.0 GPA, has been on the President’s Honor Roll every semester she has been at WSU, and is an HRA student-recruiting ambassador. She worked in Alaska and Canada as a tour director for Princess Cruise Tours this summer. When Luehrs returns to school, she will serve as her class’s career placement coordinator, working between graduating seniors and hospitality companies that come to recruit employees.

Luehrs, a 1998 Kamiakin High School graduate, said she is interested in planning and coordinating events and would like to work in a conference center as a conference service coordinator. Her parents are Greg and Susie Luehrs of Kennewick.

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