She’s catered to a generation of students — with love
Paula Faloon’s career reads like a highlights reel of USF history. As an employee of USF’s former and current dining services contractors, she has served four USF presidents and countless guests, faculty and staff. She has witnessed campus life in all its moments: celebrations and farewells, weddings and funerals, orientation day jitters and graduation dances.
She has worked on gala dinners and banquets for a visiting Saudi prince, served reporters and politicians, and helped feed the Pittsburgh Steelers when they trained on campus before Super Bowl XLIII.
But her proudest memories aren’t of high-profile guests; they’re of students. She has worked with hundreds in her 29 years feeding USF.
“So many of them keep in contact and let me know when they get married, have children or make a great career move,” says Faloon, who will retire in September as director of catering for USF Aramark. She has watched student workers she mentored go on to become police officers, flight attendants, engineers, lawyers, HR professionals and physicians.
Her dedication goes beyond the kitchens, conference rooms and banquet halls. At the height of COVID-19, when 180 stricken students were quarantined on campus and supply chains fell apart, Faloon suited up in hazmat gear and got to work. She packed her car with supplies from Sam’s Club and, alongside her Aramark colleagues, prepared and delivered meals to the sick.
She laughs as she recalls some of the behind-the-scenes mishaps over the decades: hot boxes falling off delivery trucks, asking tour leaders to stall groups while her team frantically replaced missing items before guests noticed, and student workers learning (sometimes the hard way) how to maneuver catering vehicles. “There’s never a dull moment,” she says.
Now, she’s preparing to hang up her familiar black pants and polo. She plans to travel with her husband and lead Pilates courses for women over 55.
“Paula may not have taught in a classroom, but she has been an educator in her own way, showing a generation of Bulls what it means to serve with heart and humor,” says Shari Martinez, senior director of executive and presidential events in the USF President’s Office.
And that is what it comes down to.
“While few of them go on to hospitality careers, their time on our team was important — a job that helped them support themselves while they earned a degree, a training ground where they learned about communication, multi-tasking, problem-solving and building relationships,” says Faloon.
“It really warms my heart when, at graduation ceremonies, students ask me to help them put on their cap and pose for pictures.”
- Lorie Briggs, ’88 and MA ’13 // Innovative Education
