Pebble Beach Scholars complete their first year

By Mark Muckenfuss

On a recent afternoon, a group of Cal State Monterey Bay students spent about an hour putting around, something they rarely get the opportunity to do. 

Normally, this first cohort of the Pebble Beach Scholars Program is busy working with guests at the famed resort when they aren’t in the classroom or studying for exams. The friendly competition on The Hay practice green was a chance to celebrate the completion of their first year as interns. 

Amid periodic cheers and groans, based on the success – or not – of their putts, some of the students talked about their experiences both as Sustainable Hospitality and Tourism Management majors and as resort workers – getting their feet wet in a field where they hope to find a career. 

“I’m learning so much,” said Lloyd Ferguson, a senior from Carmel by the Sea. “Pebble Beach has been very welcoming and really good to us.”

Ferguson, 37, came to CSUMB’s hospitality management program after a number of career ventures, including a stint in real estate. He’d like to one day open his own wellness retreat. He hopes to enter Pebble Beach’s manager training program once he graduates next spring. 

Working at Pebble Beach, where he has been a host at Stillwater Bar and Grill and The Tap Room, has given him important experience and a new insight into hospitality. The most important thing he’s learned, he said, is a way of approaching resort guests. 

“It’s finding little ways to make their day better,” he said. “Even if they’re in a great mood, what can we do to make it even better?”

It’s these kinds of lessons that encourage Paige Viren, executive director of CSUMB’s program. She had high hopes for the program when it launched last year, and they haven’t diminished.

"It’s turning out better than what I envisioned in terms of how we've worked together with Pebble Beach,” she said. “They’ve been very flexible. It’s definitely a team dynamic that I really like. A few of the managers have said what a great experience they’ve had working with the students.”

Caroline MacDonald, executive vice president and chief operations officer for Pebble Beach Company, said she is also pleased with the progress of the program.

“The professionalism of the students and their commitment have been outstanding,” MacDonald said. “They are eager to dig in and do the work and, as a result, the program has exceeded our expectations.” 

It’s been such a success, she added, that she thinks it can serve as an example of what a scholars program can be.

“We could be a platform that others go on to replicate across other industries,” she said. 

Some of the scholars seem almost giddy when they talk about their experiences.

“I still am just as excited as the first day I joined,” said senior Ava Fox. “It’s just been amazing to be a part of this.”

Fox grew up in the hospitality industry, working in food and beverage service at Alpine Lake near her Sonora home. But being placed at the concierge desk at Pebble Beach was a new experience for her. It’s a good start on her goal to one day be a general manager, she said. She not only enjoys working with the resort guests, but she also is inspired by the outlook of her fellow workers. 

“The seasoned employees who have been there 30 years still have that same flame in their eyes,” she said.

Rebecca Lutton, a senior from Waterford, said she feels a part of Pebble Beach.

“This is an amazing opportunity for me to be immersed in the community,” Lutton said. 

She spent her year working as a hostess at the premier restaurant Pèppoli. An employee field trip took her to the restaurant’s primary supplier of wine, Antinori Napa Valley, where the restaurant team spent the day tasting and selecting wines. It’s an example, she said, of the kind of experience she wouldn’t otherwise get. 

“It’s made a huge impact,” she said of the program. “It’s put me on the path I was hoping to make for myself. Otherwise, I’d just be another student studying and trying to get a job after college.”

MacDonald said Lutton and the other scholars are setting an example. Addressing the group, and awarding a few prizes, after the friendly putting competition, she told them they are paving the way for others.

“You are the first cohort,” she said, “in what we believe is going to go on for many, many years.”