BBA Student Amanda Waldhelm - My experience at the Paralympic Games Rio 2016

Amanda Waldhelm, third semester student in the Bachelor in Tourism and Hospitality Management, had the chance to experience the 2016 Paralympic games, and gain work experience at the same time. She shares her experience:

‘’Being originally from Rio de Janeiro, it was an absolute pleasure to have the opportunity to come back to my hometown, but this time with a different purpose: working together with the MODUL Tourism College and the ÖPC (Austrian Paralympic Committee) at the Austria House for the Paralympic Games Rio 2016.

My main responsibility was to assist the whole team with communication to suppliers and local collaborators. My main task was to assist Chef Gansterer through the food and beverages ordering process, to check all invoices and keep in touch with suppliers along the way. I was also in charge of translating the House’s daily menu from German into English and Portuguese and printing them out each day before our evening events started. In addition, I spent most evenings assisting our Committee colleagues with access control at the entrance desk, and I was responsible for direct contact with Brazilian guests whenever language problems occurred. I was also happy to help whenever any of my teammates had any question related to Rio, Brazil, the language, or anything else that only someone from the country would be able to help them with.

MODUL University has a big focus on living in an international community, which was absolutely the case at the Austria house, and providing students with a first-class educational background that will allow them to enter the job market and be successful professionals specializing in one of the many areas we get a glimpse into during the BBA. On top of my theoretical knowledge, during these two weeks at the Austria House I gained some excellent on-the-job experience that I will take to my future professional life and that will help me choose which of these areas I would like to specialize in.

Since this was my first work experience in the Tourism and Hospitality field, I have improved my teamwork abilities as well as learned how to better deal with guests and how to handle stress and pressure in a context where such important events are involved. Most important of all, I have also learned how much happiness it brings me to work in this area, knowing that every evening I helped the events to happen successfully and that at the end of the day, all our guests left the Austria House happy and satisfied. Lastly, I would like to thank Dr. Florian Aubke, Dean of the Undergraduate School, for getting in touch with me about this opportunity, and Chef Gottfried Gansterer for inviting me to be part of the MODUL Team at the Austria House in Rio.’’