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Plan and help execute a live summit in this two-week hospitality and event management program for high school students at UCLA.
Rated 4.3 out of 5 for course experience by high school students surveyed across the broader program in 2026.
Course Description
The guests see an event. Behind it, someone is keeping the people, timing, and unexpected problems moving in the right direction. Try that work, then contribute to a live conference.
In this course you will explore hospitality and large-scale event production through simulations, cases, and a live project. Practice hotel and front-of-house operations, VIP check-in, and guest service. Design a reception for 500 guests, map logistics for a 10,000-person event, and respond to a simulated catering crisis.
Venue choice, food and beverage coordination, accessibility, risk, crowd flow, and volunteers all affect the experience. A run of show connects talent, technology, and operations so the team knows what needs to happen and when. Los Angeles sporting and entertainment events provide cases to examine.
For the Beyond Now Summit, a live speaker conference for high school students, teams take responsibility for logistics, guest and speaker services, volunteers, media and communications, or event execution. Rehearse, contribute during the event, and present a post-event analysis. A portfolio-ready record of the planning, results, and lessons learned captures what happened after the plan met a live audience.
This two-week high school program takes place at UCLA in Los Angeles, California. The program is developed by UCLA and offered in partnership with Summer Discovery. It is available to residential and commuter students.
What You Will Do
• Practice VIP check-in, guest service, and service-recovery decisions
• Design food and beverage plans for a large reception
• Map venue logistics, accessibility, crowd flow, and risk controls
• Draft a run of show with operational cues and contingency time
• Recruit and lead volunteers through simulated event challenges
• Rehearse, execute, and evaluate a live student speaker summit
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Plan a guest experience around scale, access, risk, and operational limits
• Explain how logistics, volunteers, and timing work together at a live event
• Use event results to recommend practical improvements
You’ll leave with your portfolio-ready summit capstone and a certificate of completion.
Why Hospitality and Event Management Skills Matter
Hospitality and event management ask students to design an experience while controlling the systems behind it. Guest service, food and beverage, venue access, staffing, technology, timing, and risk must work together. A decision that looks small to an attendee can require coordination across several teams.
Planning tools make that complexity manageable. Logistics maps reveal bottlenecks, a run of show aligns people and cues, and risk assessments force teams to prepare before problems appear. Working on a live event also develops judgment under pressure, because students must communicate clearly, adapt quickly, and evaluate what happened after the audience leaves.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed 9th, 10th, 11th, or 12th grade.
If you enjoy organizing a complicated project and seeing it become an experience for other people, this course puts that interest to work. Hospitality, sports and entertainment events, communications, and leadership all have roles to explore. The live summit requires dependable participation across a production team, including shared planning documents, rehearsal, and responding to real-time challenges.
Recommended by More Than 4 out of 5 Students
Based on students surveyed in Summer Discovery’s 2026 UCLA high school program.
Your Summer at UCLA
UCLA gives high-school students the opportunity to explore an academic interest while experiencing university life in Los Angeles, a city where entertainment, technology, business, science, and culture constantly intersect. The campus has its own community and rhythm while connecting students to a wider environment built around creativity and new ideas.
Students learn alongside peers, navigate a large campus, and gain independence through everyday choices and responsibilities. Time outside class expands the experience through friendships, campus life, and opportunities to notice which subjects and settings hold their attention. For families, UCLA offers a valuable combination of substantive academics, personal growth, and clearer direction about what a student may want to study, experience more deeply, or pursue next.
Summer Discovery Certificate of Completion
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive