DeKalb | Beginning in October, students from the School of Family, Consumer and Nutrition Sciences began running their own dining operation in the Holmes Student Center’s Pheasant Room.

FCNS 320 is a hospitality class in which students mimic the duties and responsibilities of a restaurant owner.

“I feel that I have learned how to really run a restaurant,” said Tiffanie Keehn, a senior nutrition and dietetics major taking the course. “We design our own themes, our menus, decor, everything. Also, it has taught me how to plan and work together with other people because everyone has their own ideas.”

The direction the class takes is inspired by the Hyatt and the Marriot, which have been working in conjunction with the hospitality program, said HSC food service director Karen Villano.

Participating students form groups and create a theme for the full luncheon meal they will serve.

“Students organize and plan and make meals as if they were actually opening their own restaurant,” said Eunha Myung, an assistant professor of FCNS who teaches the course.

Each team is given a chance to act as management twice during the semester.

“When it is your day of services, your management team runs the restaurant. The rest of the class is your employees,” Keehn said. “The management team will decide who they want working in the ‘front of the house’ and ‘back of the house.’ We decide what servers are going to wear, who will do what, etc.”

After the day’s service is over, the team then goes over its budget to see if it budgeted correctly and made profit.

“It is nerve-racking when it is your day of service because you hope that you have predicted who will order what entree the most and that you ordered the right amount of food accordingly, but everyone makes sure that your day of service goes as planned,” Keehn said.

Myung describes her role in the course as minute.

“I am just directing them, really. They do all the work,” she said.

Villano thinks there is a large career benefit to a course such as this.

“When the students graduate from this program they want to be ready and they want practical experience,” Villano said. “They can’t place the students fast enough. There are more jobs out there than are graduating from these hospitality programs.”

FCNS 320 serves lunch in the Pheasant Room on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.