Student Profile: Lucas Magnini (BA '12)

Lucas Magnini (BA '12), a Spartan from Williamsville, NY, just outside of Buffalo, came to The School after visiting in high school and seeing immediately that "The School's facilities, clubs, networking power, Big Ten atmosphere, 'small school' feel within a very large university, experienced professors, hundreds of successful alumni - all are truly things that cannot be found anywhere else."

Once he arrived, he wasted no time at all getting involved in all that The School has to offer. With work in the restaurant industry already under his belt, Lucas joined The School's chapter of the Club Managers Association of America, took a leadership position as supervisor of Reception for Les Gourmets America the Beautiful 2009, and volunteered with the Hospitality Association. These experiences, Lucas maintains, have "helped my progression as a student immensely. I networked with business professionals, made good friends, and met professors I might otherwise not have. And my work with CMAA was responsible for my landing an internship at my local country club this summer."

Next year, Lucas will serve as director of Reception for Les Gourmets and as vice president for Human Resources for the Hospitality Association. He is convinced that it will be time well spent. "School events and clubs have been incredibly helpful to me in grasping the material I had learned in classes. You can teach something on a power point 100 times, but the hands-on experiences are what truly allowed me to learn more and more about the industry."

Lucas will let the coming years help him decide which areas within the industry he will eventually focus on. His plans for a Study Abroad the Summer of 2010 may also help him narrow the field. In the meantime, he is determined to take advantage of the "wide variety of classes available within The School," as well as his leadership in School events and clubs - so he can someday be added to that long list of successful alumni from The School of Hospitality Business at MSU.