Mistake number one: as soon as we arrived at dinner I was told my name-tag was on the wrong side. Mistake number two: I foolishly passed the bread to the wrong side. Mistake number three: I attempted to cut my string of asparagus, which caused the entire thing to slip off my plate and onto the floor. At the etiquette dinner I quickly learned all of these things would definitely not be appropriate at a business lunch.
With the help of the hosts, seniors attending the etiquette dinner had at all of our different tables, we learned how to behave properly when meeting new people and interviewing over a meal.
The dinner, hosted by the Wooster Inn, occurs every year as an opportunity for seniors to learn the ins-and-outs of acceptable dinner behavior. With an introduction from two members of the senior committee, we all learned that the etiquette dinner is provided for us by the Wooster Fund.† Because alumni generously donate money to the school we are able to have books in our libraries and professors that are well paid.
After prefacing the dinner with an explanation of the money donated by alumni, members of the committee told us how important it is for us to give back to Wooster after we graduate.† The money we give back to the school can help the current students and staff maintain and build upon all of the great things we already have here.
After we learned about the Wooster Fund, the dinner then started off with the horrifying, yet true, statement that as seniors we have less than 100 days until graduation and only a few weeks until we turn in Independent Study.† That diminished my appetite a little, but it definitely got my attention.† It seemed almost impossible to me that this had any basis in reality.
Wasn’t it yesterday that I was getting my roommate assignment and sitting in FYS at 9:30 a.m. wishing I were still in bed?† Yet, in fewer than 100 days we will be out of Wooster and into the “real world,” attending business lunches and meetings, getting jobs in which we can use all we have learned. And in order to impress our future employers over a meal we will have to know things like how to choose foods that are most suitable to order (pasta of any kind is definitely not a good choice) and how to introduce yourself and greet your host.
After anxiously sitting through a few opening statements we finally sat down to a delicious four-course meal in the Wooster Inn dining room. Each day the etiquette dinner was offered there was a different menu, but the idea of cinnamon apple crisp cheesecake for dessert sealed the deal for me, and I ended up choosing the first Tuesday.
Our feast consisted of potato soup, pear salad, either chicken with angel hair pasta (which definitely gave us real life experience proving pasta is impossible to eat with charm) or eggplant ravioli (again providing us all with the affirmation that yes, pasta is messy and difficult to eat) and the delicious cinnamon apple cheesecake.† The meal went off without a hitch and the food and conversation were excellent.
The etiquette dinner, a wonderful way for Wooster students to better understand what is appropriate behavior during business meals, is also a great way for seniors to have an elegant and free dinner outside of the College, which doesn’t involve Lowry mac and cheese and chicken fingers.† Wooster gives us so many great opportunities to prepare us for the world after graduation, and the etiquette dinner proved to be an excellent way to do just that.