One of the missions of Dusit Thani College, Thailand’s leading higher education in hospitality businesses under Dusit International, is sustainability; therefore, the institution is dedicated to empowering the students with this mindset together with related knowledge and skills.
A tool to create sustainable mindset in students includes an expedition to sustainable community which allows them to learn and harvest knowledge from the local. The latest activity run by Culinary Arts and Kitchen Management Club, Dusit Thani College, entitled “Learning beyond the campus in the local: Ban Takhian Tia Community tour” is a good example for this. Taken place in Ban Takhian Tia Community, Takhian Tia Sub-district, Bang Lamung District, Chonburi, the tour’s objectives are to open the students’ opportunities to visit the local as well as reinforce culinary knowledge and skills on using local ingredients outside the college’s curriculum and to let them spend time on useful activities which gain more knowledge to themselves.
Ms. Suttinee Suekamram, the head of Culinary Arts and Kitchen Management Club and third year student of Dusit Thani College’s Culinary Arts and Kitchen Management Program, represented other students in sharing her thought on this event that
“This project brought everyone to Takhian Tia Community to learn the way of life of aunties and uncles there. We learnt about local ingredients which could be found in the local’s garden and the community’s forest such as coconuts, bamboo shoot shells, and herbs used for making curry paste. Also, we studied how they process coconuts into soaps and jellies. So, this activity gave us a chance to make traditional food and sweets, to enjoy learning the way of life of people in Takhian Tia Community and how they make a living, to visit and get a warm welcome by the elder Auntie Chuen who is the oldest in Takhian Tia Community, and to ride a bicycle to many places in the community such as coconut trading house where traders export the fruit to other provinces. This is a great opportunity and experience that we have gained from this learning in the local.”
Dusit Thani College aims that the students will be able to develop gained knowledge about local ingredients as well as way of life in a way that could be a guideline for sustainable tourism in the future.
