Hali Dietsche ‘24 - Philippus Miller III ‘83 Hotelie for Life® Prize Winner

Hali Dietsche ’24 has been a lifelong learner.  She has constantly sought opportunities not only to increase her technical hospitality knowledge, but also enhance her leadership skills and sustainability expertise.  While Hali earned her undergraduate degree from the Nolan School of Hotel Administration and won the Hotelie for Life^® Senior Prize award, it can be assumed that she will never stop learning.

In 2020, the Cornell Hotel Society (CHS) Hotelie for Life^® Senior Prize was named in memory of Philippus Miller ’83, longtime director of alumni affairs at The Hotel School and founder of the executive search firm Philippus Miller III and Associates. Phil was famously known for facilitating relationships among Hotel School students, faculty, and alumni. He was the consummate Hotelie - a people-person dedicated to serving others.

As the daughter of hospitality professionals, Hali had an early appreciation for cooking.  During high school she developed her own unpaid apprenticeship program within the food and beverage departments of local hotels in Dubai.  While looking at university culinary programs around the world, Hali’s father (a graduate of EHL Lausanne) encouraged her to expand the scope of her research beyond culinary schools.

When exploring the Nolan website, Hali was very impressed with the non-academic activities associated with The Hotel School.  In particular, she found the ability of students to be engaged in activities such as Hotel Ezra Cornell (HEC) and work in the Statler Hotel to be very attractive.  Then, while visiting her grandmother in Maine, she took time to travel to Ithaca and visit the campus.  Like many other applicants, she immediately fell in love with the rural location, campus, buildings, and possibility to experience four seasons of weather.  When admitted, she immediately accepted the offer to enroll at Cornell.

In addition to food and beverage, Hali developed an interest in sustainability during high school.  Accordingly, Hali sought classes outside of Statler to increase her knowledge in this area.  One of Hali’s most challenging courses during her four years at Cornell was Environmental Systems I – an introduction to passive structure design.  The course was technically open only to Architecture students, but after a one-on-one conversation with the instructor Hali was able to enroll.  Taking the course, Hali learned how to design and model self-sustaining building structures that enable green and sustainable practices.  This would become valuable in Hali’s future years.

Within the Hotel School, Hali became involved in several activities.

• Hali joined the Ambassadors program in appreciation of the guidance she received from upperclassman when she entered Cornell.  By participating in the indoctrination of freshman, she has been able to instill the “Hotelie Culture” she loves into the new students.
• Following her introduction to HEC on the school’s website, Hali immediately volunteered to serve on the culinary team of HEC her freshman year.  Hali rose up the HEC ladder landing the position of Assistant Culinary Director as a sophomore, and Food and Beverage Director as a junior.  These experiences greatly contributed to her growth as a leader.
• To further hone her operational skills, Hali enrolled in the Hospitality Leadership Development Program (HLDP) with a focus on food and beverage.  Hali started in the front of the house of the Banfi restaurant as a sophomore and was assigned as lead of private dining her junior year.  This included managing the Thursday night dinners for the Dean’s distinguished lecturers.  By her senior year, Hali was selected as student manager of Banfi’s.
• To influence the administration of the Hotel School, Hali served on the student advisory board, and was selected to be one of two assistants to Dean Walsh her senior year.  Dean’s assistants are responsible for hosting and interviewing the Dean’s Distinguished Guest Lecturers.  This helped Hali build her public speaking abilities.

While away from campus during the summer, Hali worked at the summer camp in North Carolina she had attended growing up.  While Hali did not perform any hospitality functions at the camp, she did get the learn and improve her management and training skills.  After her freshman year Hali supervised the camp’s waterfront and lifeguards while serving as a cabin counselor for 14 campers.  During her next summer, Hali was responsible for managing all of the middle school counselors and campers for 13 weeks.  These experiences contributed to Hali’s belief that managers need to roll up their sleeves, be hands-on, and lead by example.  This helped earn the respect of the camp employees that she supervised.

During the summer after her Junior year, Hali returned to the hospitality industry taking a PBX operator position at the Ritz-Carlton Tysons Corner.  Given the opportunity to speak directly with hotel patrons, Hali was able to hear both the joys of satisfied customers, as well as the complaints from unsatisfied guests.  This made her very aware of the importance of a positive guest experience and stimulated her creativity to revitalize “wow moments” for guests at the property.

After graduation, Hali entered the Four Seasons management training program at their Boston property.  While this has enabled her to gain exposure to the rooms division, housekeeping and front office, her focus in the future is on the strategy and planning of the business.  Hali would like to leverage her Environmental Systems course in the Architecture school and explore ways to incorporate sustainability in the design and branding of hotels.

Hali was extremely honored to be selected winner of the Hotelie for Life^® award.  As a freshman she was immediately impressed by the passion Hotelie alumni retained for the school.  This became even more evident while serving as an HEC director, and as a Dean’s assistant her senior year.  Being the Hotelie for Life^® winner, Hali believes it is important that she help maintain stewardship of the Hotelie community.  For Hali, being a Hotelie for Life^® means leading by serving others.  Listen to your team members and continually be open to learning from others.

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Additional 2024 Hotelie for Life^® Finalists

The following members of the Cornell University Nolan School of Hotel Administration class of 2024 were selected as finalists for the Hotelie for Life^® Senior Prize.  Hali and the four other finalists all received lifetime memberships to the Cornell Hotel Society.

• Maggie Folwell
• Gwen Hoffman
• Karl Lam
• Ellie Scherping

The Cornell Hotel Society and Cornell Hotel Foundation congratulate Hali and all the award finalists, and wish them the best of success on their journeys as a Hotelie for Life^®. This interview was conducted by Robert Mandelbaum ’81.