HTRM students help with restaurant’s expansion plan

As the restaurateurs behind the popular eatery Salud! de Mesilla prepare to expand their business, they’ve partnered with the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management at New Mexico State University to give students the chance to put their knowledge to the test.

For the final project in Betsy Stringam’s HRTM 434 Hospitality Capstone class, students conducted in-depth case studies on Salud! de Mesilla last fall. Their task involved analyzing various options for business expansion, writing detailed reports to justify their recommendations and presenting their findings to owners Russell Hernandez and Christopher Schaljo.

Now, Hernandez and Schaljo, both NMSU alumni, plan to implement some of the students’ ideas in their business expansion.

“This project brought a sense of real-life to the classroom,” Stringam said. “The students were able to do a project that resembles what they have to do in the real world. Now, they’ll know how to complete an ROI (return on investment) and calculate the costs and revenues associated with investments such as a restaurant expansion.”