Three incoming freshmen have been selected as the 2026 recipients of Niagara University’s Merani Scholarship, a partnership between the university and Merani Hotel Group designed to provide students with hands-on experience in the hospitality industry.
For some students, that experience begins while they are still in high school.
Merani Hotel Group is an independent hospitality and hotel management company with properties on both the U.S. and Canadian sides of the border.
Amelia Ioviero, Keegan Lee and Marek Wojciechowski, all from Western New York, will begin their Niagara University journeys this fall with plans to pursue careers in hospitality.
Ioviero, a Maryvale High School graduate, will study hotel operations at Niagara. While in high school, she completed the NAF Academy program, which connects students with real-world work experience and helps prepare them for college and careers in high-demand fields.
Lee, a graduate of St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, plans to study food and beverage management. He began working at the DoubleTree this summer as part of his Merani internship experience, allowing him to gain hands-on experience in the hospitality industry before beginning his college career.
Wojciechowski, a Starpoint High School graduate, will study hotel luxury operations at Niagara.
The Merani Scholarship was established in 2018 to help develop the next generation of hospitality leaders. Scholarship recipients train and work alongside Merani executives at one of the company’s five hotel properties in the Niagara Falls region — three on the U.S. side of the falls and two in Ontario, Canada. Each student will receive an annual scholarship worth $7,500 and paid rotating internships at Merani properties.
In addition to its hotels, Merani operates a food truck and four restaurants. The experiential learning opportunities provided through the scholarship complement the knowledge students gain in the classroom and allow them to apply their studies in real-world hospitality settings.
Niagara University’s College of Hospitality and Tourism Management offers undergraduate degree programs in hotel and restaurant management, sport and recreation management, and tourism and event management, as well as a graduate program in sport management.
To learn more, call 716-286-8279 or visit www.niagara.edu/hospitality.
