Tom and Jill Diehl, father and daughter, work together daily side by side in Wisconsin
Dells.
Tom Diehl knows from experience:
“Finns are honest and hardworking”
Over the last 20 years, more than 1 000 Finnish university level students have
participated in SAM’s Work & Travel program in the Mid West, Wisconsin.
The purpose of the Work Travel
Program is to offer internatio-nal
students the opportunity
to immerse themselves in the
USA daily life, through tem-porary
employment opportunities during
their summer holidays. In additional to
work-based cultural exposure, it is allo-ws
the students to learn and experience
American culture firsthand.
Tom Diehl, a long-time Director of
Tommy Barlett Show, welcomed the first
Finns to Wisconsin Dells over 20 years
ago. In this interview, he tells how Dells
have changed, how the process has imp-roved
and shares the most memorable
moments of the past 20 years.
– The Wisconsin Dells has changed
dramatically since we were in our first
year of the Finnish/American work and
travel program. In the year 2000, the Dells
was basically a summer (Memorial Day –
Labor Day) tourism destination playing
to approximately 2 000 000 visitors. Vi-sitors
from Minneapolis to Chicago spent
an average of 2.5 days in the Dells during
their summer vacation, tells Tom Diehl.
– Today, we are a year-round desti-nation
primarily due to the addition of
the Indoor Waterpark Hotels and the im-pact
they have had on both meeting and
convention as well as an extended family
vacation destination. Currently, the area
plays to approximately 4 000 000 visi-tors
with about 60% visiting during the
summer months. Because of this rap-id
increase in business, the area would
suffer greatly without the positive im-pact
the J-1 visa program has had on our
seasonal workforce.
– During the early years, the sc-reening
process of Work & Travel pro-gram
participants in Finland was not
as effective as it is today. The interview
process has greatly improved during the
past 15 years. More attention has been
paid to the conversational English skills
of the applicants. The Finnish students
today demonstrate the same positive
traits of 20 years ago. They are honest,
hardworking, ethical and extremely in-telligent.
Their customer service skills are
as good as Americans who have grown
up in our service-oriented culture, sta-tes
Mr. Diehl.
– The two most memorable moments
of the past 20 years have been the follo-wing
events:
At our year-end awards banquet, the
most valuable employee in each depart-ment
is voted on by his or her peers in
the department and is recognized with
a monetary award the evening of the
banquet. In 2015, three of the Finnish
students were honored as departmental
outstanding employee-of-the-year. Two
additional Finns were honored as summer
departmental managers.
Another memorable moment was the
marriage of two Finnish students to their
fellow American students, smiles Tom
Diehl.
– The Work & Travel program is criti-cal
to the overall success of the Dells Tou-rism
Economy. It is a wonderful program
that exposes international students to the
culture of our tourism area. We have taken
a very proactive approach to our Finnish
students by giving them access to com-pany
resources, such as multiple vehicles
so that they have an opportunity to travel
between Minneapolis and Chicago to be
exposed to the cultural diversity of the
Midwest of the United States.
42 | SAM