MSU Offers Culinary Certificate
Author: Meredith Allen, MSU Hospitality Program Manager
MSU Offers Culinary Certificate
Meredith Allen
MSU Hospitality Program Manager
Nearly 14 million people visited Montana in 2024. They spent $5 billion exploring national parks, riding through dude ranches and sampling menus at mountaintop resorts.
Starting in August, Gallatin College - Montana State University will train students to house, guide and feed the state’s tourists and other travelers with a one-year hospitality certificate. The certificate provides baseline knowledge of business communication, culinary arts, hotel management and more, said program manager Meredith Allen.
The program received $1 million in funding from the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, which also supported plans to construct a new Gallatin College MSU building on the MSU campus.
Program manager Meridith Allen explained the program will train students to house, guide and feed the state’s tourists and other travelers with a one-year hospitality certificate. The certificate provides baseline knowledge of business communication, culinary arts, hotel management and more, Allen explained.
The hospitality program is a collaborative effort between Gallatin College MSU, the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship and the College of Education, Health and Human Development. Gallatin College-MSU students in hospitality or culinary arts programs will take classes alongside MSU students and can count their credits toward a four-year hospitality management degree, with options in
Students can work for Montana organizations through the program’s internship requirement, which is completed as a semester-long course. Allen said it will be much easier for students to integrate with a team after graduation “if they’re speaking the same language from day one.”
Communication between staff members and upper management is a central component of the program’s courses, such as the hospitality supervision and customer service class taught by Celeste Carducci, an adjunct professor in the College of Education, Health and Human Development. A 35-year veteran in the hospitality field, she worked for Marriott Hotels in Washington, D.C. She has instructed the class for two years at MSU and said she is excited to share her love of the industry with incoming Gallatin College and MSU students. If students are interested in joining this program, contact Meredith Allen at (406) 994-5536.
