Johnson & Wales University Campus Tours

My high schooler stepped onto a college campus for his first tour this month. As a freshman, he still has plenty of time to think about things (right?! time flies!), but what a great experience he had at Johnson & Wales University here in Denver, Colorado. A beautiful place!

Founded in 1914, JWU is a private, nonprofit, accredited institution. They have 4 campuses in Providence, RI, North Miami, FL; Denver, CO; and Charlotte, NC. It’s a smaller school with 16,000 graduate, undergraduate and online students. I was explaining to C’Man that I went to a large state school and if I had to do it all over again, I’m not sure that would have been my choice. There are a lot of benefits to a smaller school and JWU had such a cozy feel!

The university offers degree programs in arts, business, culinary arts, nutrition, hospitality, and health sciences. Each campus is a little different and I want to share with you a couple of areas that we toured here in Denver. Our guide was a freshman from Texas who is there to study Hotel Management.

Walk into the Culinary building at it smells AM-AZING! This is a pastry class where they were making cannoli cones. That might not be the official title, but that is what they looked like. Yum! The students here can learn to be chefs, bakers, nutrition experts and even how to run a full restaurant. In fact, I was there on a special day where the Spa Cuisine class held a mock restaurant where they served us their gourmet menu that they had created and prepared. It was all for a grade, but we were spoiled customers!

We learned that JWU is a fantastic university to get real world practice. Most students are required to have an internship in their chosen field before they graduate. Many of the professors have had prior careers too, before they are hired to teach their pupils. They want everyone to feel experienced and ready when it is time for graduation and applying themselves in the job world.

Criminal Justice was another area that stuck out for us. This huge graffiti wall was a work of art. C’Man had a great time pretending he was the judge in the mock trial classroom.

We toured the Presidents Hall sophomore-level dorm rooms (each with a bathroom!), the dining hall (a variety of choices at every meal!), classrooms (love the smaller size!) and the beautiful, old brick buildings. This is Centennial Hall, which is on the National Registry for Historic Places. It was closed up and quite a mess for thirty years, until JWU completely restored it last year. Walk inside and you’ll see modern conveniences with original touches mixed in. Love love.

Everyone comes to Colorado and stays in Colorado. It’s such a great place to live and gain new experiences. If you have a high school student who is starting to think about where to go college (I know it’s scary!) I want you to check out Johnson & Wales University website – it’s done really well and you can get a feel if it’s somewhere you’d like to visit. They have college campus tours going on Monday through Friday and on Saturdays during special admissions events.

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Has your teen been thinking about college?

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Johnson & Wales University. The opinions and text are all mine.