{"id":202881,"date":"2024-08-29T12:59:03","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T22:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=202881"},"modified":"2024-08-29T14:49:59","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T00:49:59","slug":"uh-alumni-kelly-valdez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2024\/08\/29\/uh-alumni-kelly-valdez\/","title":{"rendered":"UH<\/abbr> alumni: Kelly Valdez, Four Seasons Seattle director of food and beverage"},"content":{"rendered":"
Reading time: <\/span> < 1<\/span> minute<\/span><\/span>

\"Kelly<\/p>\n

Meet Kelly Valdez (BS<\/abbr> \u201812, UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa), director of food and beverage at Four Seasons Hotel and Residence Seattle. She is a graduate of the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at M\u0101noa Travel Industry Management School.<\/p>\n

“Originally, I was going to school at San Diego State studying business, and then I decided to move into hospitality and tourism there,” said Valdez. “But then I was thinking about what I really wanted to do and where I should be, and it was Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>. Tourism is flourishing in Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span>.”<\/p>\n[vc_row][vc_column][vc_video link=”https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/l5bMh01zKNw” el_aspect=”916″ align=”right” el_id=”wrap-video-right”][vc_column_text]\n

After graduating from UH<\/abbr>, Valdez worked at the Four Seasons Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> as an assistant restaurant manager. In 2015, she relocated to the Four Seasons Seattle to assist with the grand opening of Goldfinch Tavern. In 2024, Valdez became the director of food and beverage.<\/p>\n

During her time at UH<\/abbr>, she felt moments of doubt and uncertainty, but was lucky to have a strong support system.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s really about being able to surround yourself with people that are impactful,” said Valdez. “Are there mentors that you can team up with? Are there professors you can use as a resource? I definitely encourage making those connections as you pursue your career.”<\/p>\n

After more than a decade in the hospitality industry, Valdez said serving people is what gets her through the ups and downs.<\/p>\n

“The greatest gift in life is the gift of giving, and in hospitality we can do that,” said Valdez. “In hospitality, we don\u2019t expect anything. We don\u2019t need the gold star or the trophies. I think that\u2019s really what drives me.”<\/p>\n

Learn more about Valdez<\/a> and other outstanding UH<\/abbr> Alumni<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The TIM<\/abbr> School graduate encourages students to connect with mentors at UH<\/abbr> M\u0101noa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[90,1613,103,146,271,319,9,56,1626],"class_list":["post-202881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-alumni","tag-hospitality-and-tourism","tag-school-of-travel-industry-management","tag-shidler-college-of-business","tag-uh-alumni-association","tag-uh-foundation","tag-uh-manoa","tag-video-2","tag-women-of-uh","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202881"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202910,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202881\/revisions\/202910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}