Turns out that Siddharth Mobar was right. Grace (Hogan) Miller ’17 recalls Lasell’s assistant professor of hospitality and event management frequently reminding his students during class that success in the hospitality industry was directly related to how hard a person was willing to work. “He spoke with great passion about the hospitality industry and told us that if you didn’t want to put your head down and work hard, put in long hours, and prove yourself, it was not the industry for you,” Miller remembers. Time has shown the industry is for Miller. The 25-year-old is flourishing as the executive meetings manager at MGM Resorts’ 2,898-room Park MGM in Las Vegas and the resort’s NoMad luxury boutique hotel. In her role, Miller is responsible for connecting with convention and meeting planners on the West Coast to inform them about the two-year-old property. “Working in Las Vegas and at MGM has been an amazing experience,” Miller says. Miller will return to Lasell on Wednesday, March 4 to participate in a panel discussion at the annual School of Business Day. She will be joined by Shelby Jendrewski ’18, assistant to the vice president of food and beverage at Foxwoods, for Resort & Casino Industry: Perspectives from Lead Performers, from 1:15-2 p.m. in the Innovation Center. Just as Miller internalized Mobar’s lessons about hard work, she also followed the advice of another faculty member, Professor Dina Tanvuia, the chair of Lasell’s hospitality and event management program. Tanvuia served as Hogan’s academic advisor. “She encouraged us to pursue internships with the world's most iconic brands so we would be gaining experience from the best in the business,” Miller says. “You can’t learn all there is to know about the hospitality industry by only writing essays and making presentations in class.” Along with internships at Royale Boston nightclub, the Museum of Fine Arts and Rafanelli Events, Miller worked with Tanvuia throughout her junior year to land an internship in the summer of 2016 in the world’s entertainment mecca, Las Vegas. Tanvuia, a veteran of the Las Vegas hospitality industry, set up interviews with recruiters for Miller and arranged a trip to the Nevada city for Miller and other students to network. The result: a 10-week internship with Caesars Entertainment that left Hogan wanting more. “I learned so much about the industry and Las Vegas that I realized I wanted to come back after graduation,” she reports. After the internship at Caesars, Tanvuia recommended that Miller pursue the management training program at MGM Resorts. She successfully navigated a series of interviews and was offered a full-time job as a management associate, midway through her senior year at Lasell. She started with MGM Resorts after graduation in June, and eight months later was placed in her current position. Grace now resides in Las Vegas with her husband, Adam Miller, who also works in the resort industry. They were recently married in Boston this past September. They make it a priority to give back to Lasell to invest in the next generation of resort leaders.