This fall, students in Mount Vernon High School’s Culinary Arts program studied recipes to make Halloween-themed baked goods ahead of the holiday. Combining marshmallows, chocolate, pumpkin and other ingredients, they created a variety of spooky treats with names like Hocus Pocus S’more Pops, Witch Finger Cookies and Pumpkin Rice Krispie Treats.
Samantha Cohen, who teaches the Culinary Arts classes, said the popular program has been renewed by the New York State Education Department through 2030. “Our students really get to be creative, and they really enjoy it,” she said.
The program is run through the school’s Career and Technical Education department and qualifies as one of the components for the state education department’s 4+1 pathway to graduating with a Regents diploma.
Students in the program can graduate with a Regents diploma if they successfully pass a Career and Technical Education assessment in the culinary arts, along with passing Regents exams in social studies, math, science and English.
The culinary program is one of seven career track pathways offered through the school’s Career and Technical Education department. Others include Nursing Assistant, Graphic Arts Design, Automotive, Barbering, Cosmetology and Cybersecurity.
During a break from molding green dough into Witch Finger Cookies, complete with almond slices for fingernails, high school senior Asher Nicholson said he plans to pursue a career in the culinary field and that this program has already provided him with more opportunities than he ever thought possible.
“This is a really great first step for me,” Nicholson said. “I’ve already toured two colleges including the Culinary Institute of America, which is an opportunity I never thought I’d get.”
Cohen said that while many of the students will go on to culinary programs in college, the program offers a different pathway to graduate “for those kids who maybe aren’t interested in the traditional college-bound route. The culinary arts is really a space where they can flourish.”
A school year is 180 days, with no two days and no two schools exactly alike. The students differ, the teachers differ, school cultures differ. Here, our photographers find what makes our school days anything but ordinary, the people and programs and events that make a difference, school day in and school day out.
Check back to lohud.com for our lohud in our schools feature each Monday.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Mount Vernon High School’s popular culinary program renewed through 2030
Reporting by Seth Harrison, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
