THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409220075
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E13 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MICHELLE MIZAL Campus, Correspondent
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
JOHN PAIGE HAS the look of an athlete, but when PGA Tour officials recruited him as a summer intern, they weren't interested in how he strikes the ball. It was his talent for business that landed him in the clubhouse.
The 6-foot-4 senior at Norfolk State University was part of the annual Professional Golfers' Association Tour Minority Workshop this summer in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
Each year, the PGA chooses 16 minority interns to train in various nonsports capacities. Interns have the opportunity to gain experience in fields such as corporate marketing, which teaches them how to develop business relations with companies including Coke, Nike and IBM. The program also offers internships in management, communications and design. This year, there were 125 applications.
The internship was established in 1992 by Deane Beman, former commissioner of the PGA, to reflect the cultural diversity of the tour, said Richard Bowers, a PGA official.
Acceptance is based on an applicant's grade-point average, references, areas of professional interest and a personal interview. The 16 selected are paid $250 a week.
``I did everything in the world from dishwasher to line cook to chef to waiter to host to food and beverage director to marketing,'' said Paige, who is majoring in hotel, restaurant and institutional management.
Bowers said it was Paige's enthusiasm that won the internship for him.
``He's an excellent student,'' said Hubert T. Alexander, director of the Hotel, Restaurant, Institutional Management Program at Norfolk State. ``He has the ability to absorb the information. God knows, he's not bashful.''
Paige said the internship built up his confidence and allowed him to meet people who ``have crossed roads'' that he has still to cross.
``I received a set of golf clubs from Calvin Peete (a professional golfer),'' Paige said, ``and I also met Michael Jordan while working as manager of the dining room.''
Paige also was chosen this year for the Salute to Excellence Award by the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation in Chicago. Norfolk State flew him there to accept the award.
Paige, 24, says that life wasn't always so glorious for him. He was born in the Virgin Islands, grew up in a single-parent household in Norfolk's inner city and went to three different high schools. ``My mom always stuck in there with me,'' Paige said. She always saw to it that he had the basic things he needed, he said.
Leaving his ``former inner-city way of thinking,'' Paige has big hopes for the future. ``I would like to achieve the American Dream, the honest American Dream. I have never felt it until after that (the internship). It's an awesome feeling. I feel that I can do anything,'' he said.
Paige hopes to get a management position marketing restaurant concepts. ``I could set up restaurants and it gives me a chance to travel,'' he said. ``I love to move.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by PAUL AIKEN
Norfolk State's John Paige landed an internship with the PGA tour.
He is majoring in restaurant, hotel and institutional management.
Photo
[Mizal]
Mizal attends Tidewater Community College.
by CNB