His Students Dream of Faraway Places

Marc Mancini is helping high school students see the world from their Los Angeles classrooms.

A professor of travel at West Los Angeles College, he has played an instrumental role in designing and implementing a new educational program that prepares local students for careers in the tourism and travel fields. Although the program is administered and taught by teachers from the L.A. Unified School District, it resulted from Mancini’s dedication and lengthy work behind the scenes.

The travel program began last month at Belmont and Fremont high schools. Unlike traditional courses that target college students and adults, the two-year elective program is aimed particularly at minority high school juniors and seniors. Students learn everything from geography to conducting tours before being offered paid summer internships with local travel companies.

“I think for a lot of kids, their world ends about 10 miles from their house and they don’t think about expanding their horizons,” said the 47-year-old Manhattan Beach resident. “It’s a good time to let them start thinking about careers and suggest directions because I think that travel is a dream of everyone.”

To get support for the program, Mancini approached the National Academy Foundation, a New-York based organization that works with businesses to fund secondary school programs.

“Over the years I kept bugging them,” he said. “I wanted to get something going in Los Angeles and this fall, it came to fruition.”

Mancini is optimistic that some of these high school students will continue their studies and enroll in West Los Angeles College’s comprehensive travel program. He also believes it will improve the quality of courses at the Culver City campus.

“Primarily, classes are made up of second-career adult students,” he said. He thought that targeting 19 and 20-year-olds would diversify and enrich the program.

His efforts have not gone unnoticed. Earlier this month, Mancini received the “Teacher of the Year” award by the Society of Travel and Tourism Educators. He was recognized for making a significant contribution to the advancement of learning in the field of travel.

Mancini has worked in the travel business off and on for the past three decades. As a teen-ager, he worked as a tour escort to finance his education in modern languages at Providence College in Rhode Island. He later completed a master’s degree in cinema and doctoral degree in French at USC.

When Mancini’s teaching position in the cinema program at West Los Angeles College was cut seven years ago, he decided to make a career change and began teaching courses in the travel program. It proved to be a positive move.

He went on to establish his own consulting firm, in which he has designed training programs and conducted seminars for major travel organizations. In addition, he has written magazine and newspaper articles on the travel industry.

“I have been in and out of the travel business and I never burned out on it,” he said. “It might not pay as well as other careers but the non-monetary rewards more than make up for it.”

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Brentwood resident James Rosenblum has been reelected as chairman of the trustees of the Graduate Center for Child Development and Psychotherapy in Los Angeles.

Other newly elected officers include Santa Monica residents Lisa Aronson, Michael Gales, Malibu resident Clinton Montgomery and Brentwood resident Randi Markowitz. They will each serve a three-year term.

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UCLA Extension’s Interior and Environmental Design Program has appointed architect Jeffrey Daniels as head of its interior and environmental design programs.

The Hollywood Hills resident will also lead UCLA Extension’s architecture and fashion design programs. Daniels owns the architectural firm Jeffrey Daniels & Associates.

He holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a master’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has taught at UCLA’s Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning and the Art Center College of Design.

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Madeline Hunter was honored by the Gold Shield, the UCLA alumni support group.

Hunter is an adjunct professor at UCLA and has served as principal of the UCLA University Elementary School for 20 years.

The Brentwood resident was recognized at a reception Oct. 10 at the James West Center on the UCLA campus.

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Ray Boarman was honored with a certificate last month by the American Red Cross. The Culver City resident was recognized for donating blood 49 times.

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