By the time Daniela-Gabrielle Smallwood completed a decade-long career in the United States Air Force, she already had an impressive portfolio in design under her belt.

“当我去空军的时候, I wanted to be a cop and wanted to do a lot more physical things and somehow, just kind of got thrown into the job of graphic designer,她分享道。. 然而, applying her educational grants from her time in the military to more time learning about creativity didn’t sit well with the seasoned designer.

在那个时候, I had probably a good 12 years of creative design behind me… most of my formal education was already kind of heavily leaning that way.”

以创业冲刺为后盾, Daniela decided to consider a pivot that could benefit from her years of creative experience while propelling her into a more business-focused career.

Working a full-time role as Director of Marketing and 通信 in the campus dining industry, 丹妮拉平衡了母性, 工作, 还有她的教育, taking on another full-time role by studying entertainment business at 满帆.

“Understanding how [business] things 工作ed was really important at that point in my career. I [wanted to] understand the entertainment business… and how to drive culture, 而不是仅仅推动销售,她说。.

Daniela’s desire to drive culture didn’t end with her time at 满帆. After several years spent 工作ing in senior marketing roles in the campus dining industry, 她开始注意到有些不对劲.

“I always ended up [工作ing] with one historically black college or university, 或者是15到16所大学中的2到3所. I always kind of had them sprinkled into my portfolio and I started to notice a pattern,毕业生说。. “我去过的第一个地区, I noticed a pattern of just certain things that they didn't have, things that didn't fit because marketing is not a one-size-fits-all approach… It just didn't make sense for HBCU communities. They didn't honor the legacy or the history that was behind them.

“我刚刚说到这一点，我说, ‘I really want to do something where I can be intentional about helping these schools have similar experiences to what some of our larger schools experience when it comes to campus dining.’”

说到这里, Daniela began an initiative to bring more authentic and curated dining experiences to HBCUs. 在汤普森酒店工作, the grad was empowered to begin to drive culture at the HBCUs under her purview.

“当COVID发生时, we couldn't do events in the dining halls so we couldn't do events with the students, 那么我们如何与他们互动呢? I was able to use the stuff I learned at 满帆 about how to create a television show, to make a television show that we turned into a podcast and turned into a magazine. Those are things that most companies probably wouldn't have thought to do, but just being able to plug those types of programs in actually elevated our program and it made us different from our competitors.”

But pandemic pivots aren’t all that Daniela’s rich creative background has lent to her time with Thompson. Under the grad’s leadership as Vice President of Marketing and Programming, she’s seen the development of several unique eating experiences on HBCU campuses including Virginia State University, 佛罗里达纪念大学, 和汉普顿大学. Creating full-fledged restaurants on college campuses, 丹妮拉和她的团队精心制作了菜单, 创建品牌, 和更多的, providing memorable and accessible dining options for college students around the US.

“Studies have shown us that there is definitely a tie to success and the campus experience. Food is always kind of like the core center of most people's lives. 我们都得吃饭. 这是我们必须要做的, 当它是一个愉快的经历, 这也成为了一次难忘的经历.”