116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Cedar Rapids high school students get career head start with ProStart
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Feb. 28, 2014 3:30 am
Béchamel, velouté, Espagnole, hollandaise and tomato. Joan Stekl's ProStart students can make them all.
They also know the difference between julienne, batonnet and brunoise.
“One of our highlights is we did the five mother sauces,” Stekl, family and consumer sciences teacher at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, said when asked for students' favorite labs. “Knowing your knives and your knife cuts because obviously that's a really important tool for a chef.”
Stekl is in her first trimester teaching ProStart. The program, a two-year curriculum, includes instruction in cooking and management
in the culinary and hospitality industries.
The Iowa Restaurant Association Educational Foundation operates Iowa ProStart, which 19 high schools have adopted since 1998, with at least one more - Glidden Ralston High School in Glidden - set to come on board this fall. Just three schools participated in the program in 2011.
“It just over the last three years has really become popular and something that schools have begun to implement,” said May Schaben, executive director of the foundation.
She attributed the growth to the state and federal education departments' emphasis on making sure high school graduates are prepared to attend college or start their careers upon earning their diplomas.
Family and consumer sciences programs "have really moved from the home-economics viewpoint out of the hearth and home into business and industry in creating a career path for students," Schaben said.
Del Hoover, a family and consumer sciences consultant for the Iowa Department of Education, said the subject matter and instruction have evolved significantly over time to include math, science, reading and entrepreneurship skills.
“You go way way back in time to the '40s and '50s, we were preparing people to be homemakers,” he said. “Now we're really looking at what are the viable careers.”
Karla Ries, director of instructional services for the Cedar Rapids Community School District, said one benefit of offering ProStart this year is being able to expand the definition and subject matter in career readiness.
“Not every student is interested in the (science, technology, engineering and math) arena,” she said. “It's another of those vocational areas that a student can explore.”
ProStart curriculum covers the chemistry of cooking as well as how to adjust recipes to serve certain numbers of people, conversions and even diversity in the workplace.
Not ‘just cooking'
Family and consumer sciences instructor LaRae Arment suggested to Alburnett Community School District administrators that they offer ProStart, a recommendation they took in time for the 2013-2014 school year.
Arment now has 10 students in her ProStart I class at Alburnett High School.
Students can also participate in cooking and management competitions – think “Top Chef” – that award scholarship dollars to top performers.
“You do a lot in the kitchen, but you also learn how to serve your customers and the different careers in the program, food safety, workplace safety. You even do cost of materials, different managerial skills, interpersonal communication and all of that,” she said. “It is a lot more than just cooking.”
That's a good thing. Both Arment and Stekl said that not all their students want to pursue culinary and hospitality careers.
"Even if they don't go into the food industry, which some of them will not, it still helps them with organization," Arment said.
She and Stekl, who also has 10 students in her ProStart I class, have both seen students rise to the increased demands and raised expectations of the program.
“The group of students I have is very eager,” Arment said. “I see it even outside the classroom. … They take some leadership in that class and help other students.”
Stekl has seen the same.
“The kids that I have in ProStart, their attendance is excellent,” she said. “They're there every day and they come ready to go because they're interested and see an importance in what we're doing, usually.”
Stekl said she'd like to see Cedar Rapids's ProStart program - which is a pilot open only to Washington students right now but will be available to learners all four high schools next year - grow to 15 participants each in ProStart I and ProStart II.
Work force development
If students meet at least 52 of 75 competencies, perform at least 400 hours of food service industry work experience, complete both levels of ProStart and pass two standardized exams, they then earn the ProStart National Certificate of Achievement. The National Restaurant Association, which operates the nationwide ProStart program, issues that accolade.
“They can take that certificate right into the work force and certainly be looked at a little bit closer than somebody who doesn't and is applying for the same position,” Schaben said. “That certificate actually means credits for students who go to colleges that have hospitality and culinary programs.”
Schaben said only three colleges award credits to ProStart certificate holders, but she's working to expand that to all institutions with culinary and hospitality programs, including Iowa State University.
The association's goal is to create 1,000 new industry jobs annually through 2024, and Schaben said the ProStart push is one way for them to do so.
“We as an industry organization have a vested interest in what high school students do with their careers. We can usually find the entry-level workers. But what's lacking right now is finding the qualified workers to manage our industry,” she said, noting those positions require additional skills.
“The benefit of a student that completes the program is they're going to be having a lot more opportunities for higher positions, starting off, as far as the level within the organization and increased pay. … We're looking at these students to become the leaders of our industry.”
Not exactly a free lunch
The Cedar Rapids Community School District ProStart Program is offered at no cost to students. A portion of general fees collected at the beginning of the school year go toward ProStart costs.
The district spent more than $73,000 to implement the program, the bulk of which came from dollars for the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act. The act calls for the federal government to send money to the states to reimburse districts for career readiness programming costs.
Cedar Rapids used the Perkins dollars for equipment, textbooks and activities guides.
Stekl said she's glad that students don't have to pay some sort of materials cost to enroll in ProStart.
“I think it would be really restricting if students had to pay a fee,” she said. “Food is expensive, and I think that would limit how many students would take the class.”
An Alburnett High School student chops up onions on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014, at Alburnett High School in Alburnett, Iowa. The culinary class was part of ProStart, a program supported by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation that allows high school students to gain college credits for hospitality courses. (Justin Wan/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)
Christian Magoon, 17, (far left) and Scott Atherton, 16, get ready for their cooking class on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014, at Alburnett High School in Alburnett, Iowa. The culinary class was part of ProStart, a program supported by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation that allows high school students to gain college credits for hospitality courses. (Justin Wan/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)
Alburnett High School students from left, Tanner Arnold, 18, Molly Wacha, 16, Christian Magoon, 17, and Scott Atherton, 16, cook on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014, at Alburnett High School in Alburnett, Iowa. The culinary class was part of ProStart, a program supported by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation that allows high school students to gain college credits for hospitality courses. (Justin Wan/The Gazette-KCRG TV9)