PolyX Hub

HRT 3830 - Food & Beverage Operations course, exemplifies the best of polytechnic learning. Undergraduate students sharpen their practical professional experience at the Restaurant at Kellogg Ranch (our classroom laboratory). Students rotate weekly through various positions in both the front of the house and back of the house, in order to learn all aspects of a food & beverage operation. Our goal is to enhance student learning by allowing them to provide excellent service to paying guests, prepare quality menu items in the kitchen, develop individual leadership style by managing their peers, and create and execute strategic restaurant management plans- all within an optimized & controlled environment. Students receive industry-standard feedbacks & training through our experienced instructors. The course is regarded by industry experts as the equivalent of a top-quality "Manager-in-Training" program; known to many top brands and their talent acquisition teams.

The Learn Through Discovery Projects Hatchery (Hatchery) provides students support and resources to explore ideas that they are passionate about and turn them into projects that have real impact on communities. With projects ranging from applied research, start-up's, to community events, students from all disciplines engage in three phases that first allow them to explore their topic (through identifying and understanding the problem to be solved), further develop their idea (by preparing a proposal and budget), and finally, implementing and assessing the project (the Hatchery provides up to $8,000 in funding at this phase). Students receive peer, staff, and faculty mentoring during the process and cross-collaborate with other students and faculty within the Hatchery.

The PolyPet Spa Day/Vaccine Clinic provides low-cost vaccines, microchipping, lab tests and other free services to local community pets.  Students from lower division classes collaborate with students from upper division classes to work this semi-annual event.  Students engage in intense mentorship before and during the event, apply critical thinking skills by determining individualized vaccine schedules and testing regimen, use communication skills to engage with clients, collaborate with other students, and disseminate veterinary medical information to the community at large.

HRT 3410, Professional Work Experience, provides students an intense look at one’s knowledge, skills, and abilities and how to best leverage them for future career success. Students complete a battery of career engagement activities, including attending professional development workshops, reflection writing, resume development, practice interviewing software, to name a few.  Students disseminate their knowledge beyond the classroom by connecting with others on LinkedIn, Handshake, and informational interviewing. They receive intense mentorship through the resume refinement process, apply critical thinking skills by evaluating future career paths, use communication skills to connect with classmates through discussion board posts, collaborate with other students, and use their creativity to present themselves to differentiate themselves to employers from their peers.

The Poly Post is a collaborative, experiential learning experience that relies on intense mentoring from its student editors and faculty adviser to create a rewarding newsroom environment and serve the information needs of the Cal Poly Pomona community. Editors manage their respective beats, assign stories, edit, fact-check and help staff writers navigate interviews and information gathering. The Poly Post leadership learns how to manage personalities and motivate staff. Student-journalists engage with all facets of the campus community – clubs, student orgs, ASI, academic senate, faculty, staff, alumni, and the administration – to inform the campus and distribute news to a diverse public audience. Students work with a variety of multimedia platforms to develop a portfolio of work; these include print and digital news stories, videos, photographs, graphics, and podcasts. The content is distributed through a weekly print edition and digital newsletter, a continuously updated website, and an annual magazine (the Bronco Guide). The staff also manage various social media accounts including Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter, and are working on the launch of a mobile news app. 

The course teaches students how to carry out ethnographic research from the development of a research question to a final conference presentation and ethnographic research article. Projects are health related and carried out in partnership with the Center for Health Disparities Research at UC Riverside’s School of Medicine. Students will gain an understanding of the social and structural mechanisms for how inequality “gets under the skin” while also gaining skills in participant observation, in-depth interviewing, life histories, material culture analysis, and qualitative data analysis using NVivo. Students are research assistants on the project and work collaboratively with undergraduate and graduate students at UC Riverside. The experience positions students for employment in the fields of social science research, public health, non-profit sectors and/or applying to graduate programs in anthropology, health sciences, and related professions. Past students have received intense mentorship, disseminated their research beyond the classroom, and work collaboratively on a multidisciplinary research team.