Hospitality student nabs scholarship

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Rick Lagiewski

Evan Coyne, right, recently won the prestigious Statler Foundation Scholarship of Excellence for her strong academic performance and activities within the tourism and hospitality industry. She was among a group of RIT students who traveled to RIT Dubai to study the growing tourism industry in the United Arab Emirates. While there, Coyne and classmate Traci Earwood took a camel ride, bringing a little bit of RIT to the desert.

In just the past year, Evan Coyne has traveled from Rochester to Croatia to Dubai, participating on academic trips to the American College of Management and Technology and for a special-topics course about tourism in the Middle East.

Yet the Palmyra, N.Y., native had as much praise for her home department and its people as the exotic locales she has visited.

“I found my niche here and am thriving in the department,” says Coyne. “They know how to roll out the red carpet for the students.”

The third-year hospitality major at RIT was awarded a $20,000 scholarship from the Statler Foundation. The prestigious Statler Scholarship of Excellence is given to students for outstanding academic performance and extra-curricular activities associated with the hospitality and tourism industry.

Coyne participated on the committee to plan the Puttin' on the RITz Dinner, the annual black-tie fundraiser for the RIT Hospitality Education Fund, as finance director and organizer of the pre-event silent auction. She is a two-term president of the RIT Hospitality Association.