{"id":1716,"date":"2023-02-02T14:58:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-02T19:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/?p=1716"},"modified":"2024-08-08T15:07:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T19:07:15","slug":"cte-month-spotlight-steven-gould","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/cte-month-spotlight-steven-gould\/","title":{"rendered":"CTE Month Spotlight: Steven Gould"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This profile is part of a series celebrating Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month at St. Petersburg College. Be sure to check out the full story<\/strong> <\/a>to read more about the experiences of SPC students. To explore all of our degrees and credentials, visit spcollege.edu\/degrees<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up, Steven Gould saw himself on track to become an attorney, but after attending a high school magnet program focused on criminal justice, he realized that he didn\u2019t really want that career enough to dedicate himself to a decade of studies. When he decided to attend SPC to get his core curriculum finished before transferring to a university, he didn\u2019t expect to find his life\u2019s calling there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know what I wanted to do,\u201d Gould said. \u201cMy friend worked at a local hotel, and it seemed like it might be fun, so I decided on SPC\u2019s Hospitality and Tourism Management program<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gould earned a Food and Beverage certificate, as well as a Rooms Division certificate. While in the program, he needed an internship. One of his classmates owned a travel agency, and she offered him an internship at her business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt first, I didn\u2019t take that career field seriously, but once I got my feet wet in the business, I loved it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was one of those things that opened me up to a different world. I wouldn\u2019t be where I am today if not for that internship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gould credits caring professors and counselors in his program for offering him support, both academically and financially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Robert Meyer, who at the time was the director of the program then, had so many contacts, and he helped me get scholarships. And the Food and Beverage and Rooms Division certificates I earned, though I don\u2019t work directly in those areas, really rounded me out so that I could learn different segments of the industry and understand all the jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After earning his associate degree at SPC in 2010, Gould opened his own agency, Gould\u2019s Travel. He also continued his education, and through one of SPC\u2019s University Partnership Center, he completed a bachelor’s degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management, Upper Division at Florida International University, and later a master\u2019s degree in Public Administration. In addition to owning Gould\u2019s Travel, he is co-owner of a luxury travel agency, Luxera, and also dabbles in real estate and e-commerce. He also serves on SPC\u2019s Hospitality Advisory Committee because he believes others can succeed, just like he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are so many facets to a hospitality <\/a>degree. It isn\u2019t just the hotel world, there\u2019s travel, supplies and food service. And though travel agents are kind of like realtors – there are a lot of us – the job isn\u2019t going anywhere because there is such a need.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To learn more about the different CTE degrees and certificates that SPC offers, please visit stpe.co\/WorkforceEd.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Gould decided to attend SPC to get his core curriculum finished before transferring to a university, he didn\u2019t expect to find his life\u2019s calling there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":743,"featured_media":1717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[31,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-hospitality-and-tourism-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/743"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1716"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2152,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1716\/revisions\/2152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.spcollege.edu\/business-educational-information\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}