(Rancho Mirage, CA) September 20, 2022 – Visit Greater Palm Springs announced today the partnership between the Greater Palm Springs Tourism Foundation and OneFuture Coachella Valley. Recognizing that tourism is our region’s number one job creator and economic driver, both organizations will collaborate to increase the number of students from the Coachella Valley entering into careers in hospitality.

The strategy includes providing student scholarships, mentorship and networking opportunities, increasing work experience opportunities, establishing a regional undergraduate internship program in hospitality, and engaging regional hospitality executives to provide expertise, among other objectives.

“Now more than ever our students need support for their college and career journey,” according to Sheila Thornton, CEO of OneFuture Coachella Valley, “It takes a regional commitment to make this happen. We are excited to work with the Tourism Foundation to provide scholarships, college success support, and career pathway training to give students the tools they need to thrive in the future workforce.”

“Many students in the Coachella Valley have never been inside one of our local resort hotels nor have they experienced meaningful travel away from home. We want them to see first-hand the wide variety of opportunities and career pathways that exist within hospitality, both here in their own backyard and around the world,” says Aftab Dada, Vice President of the Hilton Palm Springs and co-chair of the GPS Tourism Foundation Board of Directors, “Our hotel and hospitality community is committed to participating in these internship and mentorship programs and ensuring this partnership is successful.”

The first priorities for the partnership are identifying industry partners for internship and job shadow opportunities and creating a toolkit employers can use to implement their own internship programs.
“Hospitality is our number one industry in the Coachella Valley, and it’s growing, offering students abundant opportunities for career growth locally or experience that can allow them to work anywhere in the world they want to go. We look forward to working with One Future to introduce more of our local students to these opportunities,” concluded Dada.

For more information about emerging programs for students through this new partnership, go to www.onefuturecv.org.

 

About the Greater Palm Springs Tourism Foundation

Founded in 2018, the Greater Palm Springs Tourism Foundation is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to advancing education, employment and professional growth in the Coachella Valley’s tourism and hospitality community through providing scholarship opportunities to local students and hospitality workers, developing funding sources to support Foundation programs and services, and fostering passion for and excellence of service at every level. For more information, visit www.gpstourismfoundation.com.