A Filipino female academician and industry practitioner has received the Prix d’Excellence Vatel (Vatel Excellence Award) during the recent 11th Vatel International Convention, a week-long seminar and workshop on hospitality and management, held in Trou-aux-Biches, Mauritius.
Lorena “Lhoree” Valerio, a full-time professor at De La Salle College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB) School of Hotel Restaurant and Institution Management (SHRIM), was honored with the 2017 Innovation and Research Award for her dissertation Hospitality Management Students Experiences and Views on the Integration of Facebook in Promoting Classroom Communities of Practice.
Valerio’s paper explored how Facebook can be used to supplement face-to-face courses as a means of enhancing students’ sense of society and, thus, promote classroom communities of practice.
Four other SHRIM faculty, namely, Marie Castro, Tiffany Santuyo, Chef Kim Castillo, and Chef Jester Arellano, shared their researches at the conference, which was featured in Vatel’s research journal, Les Cahiers International de Tourisme (International Tourism Journal), published by its Centre International de Recherche Vatel en Tourisme et Hôtellerie (Cirvath).
Valerio teaches professional and major courses in Hospitality Management, Hotel Sales and Marketing, Events Management, Personality Development, and Front Office Operations. She has likewise developed modules on management and human resource at Benilde’s graduate institution.
Valerio is a facilitator, trainer, and speaker of The Philippine Society for Training and Development (PSTD) and was a former member of its Board of Trustees. She has also served under People Management Association of the Philippines (PMAP), Ariva Events Management, TeamAsia, and Step Up International. She was Chairperson of the Philippine Marketing Association (PMA)’s Sponsorship and Membership Committees for two consecutive years (2006-2007), and was the former director of Sales and Marketing of three hotel properties under the Hotel La Corona Group in the Philippines.
Vatel, a worldwide network of hospitality and management institutions, has an existing partnership with DLS-CSB to offer a Double Bachelors and Masters Degree programs.
For 35 years, Vatel has prepared students for middle and higher management posts in the international hospitality and tourism industry. It has 31 schools around the world with more than 7,000 students presently enrolled its programs. It has more than 29,000 alumni in its roster, who occupy management and leadership positions in global hotels and restaurants.