Will Rogers '06

Musician

(Will is pictured on the left)

q: What do you do?

a: I play in a cover band in Chicago called Jukebox Love Affair, and also in an Orlando-based ska band called SUCKERPUNCH!, which has played at Real Radio events and opened for acts like Less Than Jake. I'm in the process of launching a new band...details coming soon. While at UCF, I minored in music. There are so many parallels between music and hospitality. Hospitality is a form of entertainment. They both depend on the end user's perception of the overall experience.

q: What's your favorite part of the job?

a: Seeing the response of the audience when we perform. The music industry rewards creativity and personality. I knew that I'd never follow a sterile corporate career path.

q: What's the greatest challenge?

a: Sitting in a room and practicing for hours and hours. Music is unlike some other professions where you can read a book and know how to do your job. It truly takes practice to get it right. Music is a labor of love.

q: Do you stay in touch with any other UCF hospitality alums?

a: Carolanne Vann '07, who is also living in Chicago, as well as Ryan Stiner '01, M.S. '05, Jonathan Ahus '06 and Jay Garcia '07.

q: Outside work...you're most likely to be seen?

a: Checking out some live entertainment.

q: Your biggest accomplishment since graduating, outside your career?

a: Picking up and moving to Chicago. Also, nearing completion of my master's degree in Arts, Entertainment and Media Management. I only have one semester left to go. Ultimately, I'd like to combine my expertise in and passion for both hospitality and music in a position at a large entertainment venue, such as House of Blues.

q: How did UCF prepare you for what you do?

a: It taught me how to build relationships and work with other people. No one wants to work with a jerk. Also, knowing the hospitality industry inside and out is important to success in the music industry, since the places that entertainers play are all hospitality venues. Understanding how the operations function, and respecting where the employees are coming from, makes it easy to work with the locations that host my bands.

q: How could the hospitality program have been better?

a: It needs more focus on entrepreneurship, and on opportunities outside Central Florida. Rosen College does a great job of preparing its graduates to become managers in big-name Orlando-based corporations, but the hospitality world is so much larger.

q: A UCF memory?

a: Co-chairing the beer club. Also, Professor Ron Logan's Entertainment Arts and Events course. In that class, we coordinated the Gameday Entertainment and promotion of special events for UCF Football.

q: Favorite meal in Orlando?

a: At the Artist Point restaurant at Disney's Wilderness Lodge Resort: the grilled buffalo striploin with goat cheese polenta, ancho-cherry compote, baby golden beets, asparagus, and dark chocolate red wine reduction. I also get the side of sweet potato hazelnut gratin. I worked at Disney several semesters for my Rosen College internship requirement, and thoroughly enjoyed my time there. It sets a high standard of service and quality that is the model for many Orlando-area hotels and restaurants, but not found everywhere in the United States.

q: On your iPod?

a: Lots of ska, rock and funk.

q: Little known fact about you?

a: From birth, I've been missing one of the spongy disks that goes between two of my vertebrae.