Popcorn. Hot Dogs. Hot cocoa on a cold football Saturday. While the students in Keith Molter’s (LA’76, MS HHS’89) Purdue School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (HTM) class served up good eats at a Ross-Ade Stadium concession stand, they offered up so much more.  A healthy portion of compassion and commitment to a cause was also on the menu for these students, who were getting work experience while also supporting the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research endowment of late Boilermaker superfan Tyler Trent (AS T’18). 

Molter, who has worked in the hospitality industry all his life, knows potential employees need to be more than just good workers. “You have to be a good person and ready to be part of the community in which you work,” he says. 

Six years ago, Molter decided to include community service as a part of the curriculum of HTM 212, a service course for HTM students. Students are often caught by surprise when they hear that volunteering for a cause is a class requirement. 

“When they get the assignment, I hear the refrain, ‘I don’t have time to give,’” Molter says. “Yet when the project is done and the class is over, many students tell me they were glad they served and even plan to keep volunteering at the organization they assisted.”  

For the 2019 football season, Molter secured the opportunity for his class to run a concession stand at Ross-Ade, with the profits dedicated to a community organization of their choosing. While many worthy causes were considered, Chris Gatton, a sophomore HTM major from Lake Village, Indiana, made the winning suggestion. 

“I thought about the fact that our concession stand was right beside the gate named after Tyler and how cool it would be to have our profits go to his endowment to help find answers to cure cancer,” he says.

The entire class rallied behind this cause, and off the students went. Each home football game found a new group of seven class members in the concession stand, learning the ins and outs of the quick-transaction business of feeding hungry fans. 

“With a new team of workers for each game, students had to come up the curve fast,” Molter observes.  The students had to learn how to use the point-of-sale equipment, follow sanitation rules, and absorb myriad details important for a stand to run smoothly and give customers a positive experience. 

Gatton, who worked concession stands at high school and Little League games, agrees that the level of sophistication was intense. “It was a whole different animal at the college level, as it is all scientific and data-driven and involves tracking all the different products and metrics,” he says. “With Keith being the only permanent person there every week, I was surprised at how smoothly it all ran as we had to dive in and learn it all.” 

Analyzing profit-and-loss statements, tackling inventory management, and projecting sales based on anticipated game attendance gave students a taste of what being a manager in this field could be like. The motivation of raising money for a cause helped make this real-life experience especially meaningful for the students. 

“Everyone jumped in and did a great job in leadership roles and helping,” says Kayla Crose, a Fishers, Indiana, junior and HTM major. “It was nice to know you can make an impact, even as a student. We worked really hard and raised money for a cause that we all felt was super important; what we did mattered.” 

Taylor Calvert, who has an associate degree in culinary management from Vincennes University and transferred to Purdue to learn more about the business side of the hospitality industry, agrees that working for a cause taught her life lessons. “I definitely think this experience has done a lot for me and has me thinking about giving back more, as you can really make an impact,” she says. 

The group did indeed make a difference, meeting the goal of raising $5,000 for the Tyler Trent Cancer Research Endowment. The Walther Cancer Foundation matches every gift donated to the endowment, dollar for dollar, so the gift was doubled to $10,000. The research being done through the endowment at the Center for Cancer Research focuses on investigating cancers where they begin — at the cellular level — to examine both causes and cures. 

Tony Trent (A’91), Tyler Trent’s father, thinks this effort reflects the unique nature of Boilermakers. “These students are learning at a young age that what they do matters,” he says. “They did something so much larger than run a concession stand — they have made a difference in the lives of people they will never know.” The endowment in Tyler’s name has grown to $2.6 million. 

Teamwork, service, and nachos added up to a memorable experience for Crose and all the students involved. “While HTM may not be the biggest major at Purdue, this effort shows that everyone can make an impact in their own way.”