Students are 'cooking up' their careers in high school

School isn't only about math and science. It is about preparing students for life after high school – whether that includes college or a job. That's what South Bend schools say their Career and Technical Education program is about. And students in one career class have a new classroom of sorts.

Students in the Culinary Arts Careers class are working this year in a brand new state of the art commercial kitchen. The idea is the students will be able to go from cooking there, to cooking anywhere – in college, at home, or in the working world.

"Grab your wooden spoons," Chef Greg Schell says to his classroom full of teens.

Schell is still getting use to the classroom part of teaching. But lucky for him, not much class time is spent in the classroom.

"Today we are working on knife skills," says Schell, "they are doing different kinds of cuts. Julienne, small dice, medium, large dice. My chefs that are cooking today are going to be making rice pilaf."

Schell has been cooking since he was 15. He attended culinary school and has been a professional chef since then even opening a restaurant in the Chicago area. Now, he teaches culinary arts for South Bend.

"I am trying to run this as much like a real kitchen as we can, because that is what I know," says Schel.

The students learn what it is like to work in a real kitchen: From preparation, to cooking and baking, to cleanup. For many of these students, this isn't just a class, it is the start to a career.

"Beause I have always liked to cook. My dad likes to cook and I want to open up my own restaurant one day," says Jamiel Hilal, a Clay High School junior.

And because of this class, Hilal is getting a head start on his career. Some of the students in the class are earning dual credit – high school and college credit. And everyone will have experience working with a head chef in a commercial kitchen.

"They are getting first hand knowledge from an instructor who has walked the walk and talked the talk and he knows what it means to run a kitchen," says Tammy Yohe, the career and technical education recruiter for South Bend Community School Corporation.

"Because he went there and he is teaching us what goes on in a real restaurant and what is going to go on in life," says Hilal.

Students have to apply to take this class because administrators want to make sure they are serious. It is three hour class every day.

And students are also reinforcing math skills, too. Riverbend Community Math Center comes in every week and teaches the students math skills that go along with what they are doing in the class. So they are integrating fractions, algebra and geometry into cooking.