Community to be well served by culinary arts program

A "community cocina" at Court Youth Center will bring the aromas and job opportunities of the culinary arts into the lives of Las Crucens.

Once new facilities are built, a culinary arts training program will serve high school students, welfare-to-work participants, college classes and others.

John Hartley, Dona Ana Branch Community College hospitality instructor and Court Youth Center board member, left, and Keith Mandabach, NMSU assistant professor of hotel, restaurant and tourism management are working to establish a "community cocina" at Court Youth Center. Photo By Michael Kiernan

Working with a host of community groups, NMSU secured a $370,000 grant from the federal Housing and Urban Development department for Hispanic-serving institutions assisting communities.

"Our role is giving this facility to the community," said Keith Mandabach, grant administrator.

Mandabach is an NMSU assistant professor of hotel, restaurant and tourism management and a certified chef.

The grant will cover construction of a serving area for catered events, demonstration classrooms for teaching food preparation, professional kitchens for preparing hot entrees and cold hors d'oeuvres, and a fully-equipped bakery for making breads, pastries and decorated cakes.

"We can smell the bakery already," says Irene Oliver-Lewis, '74, '75, '78, Court Youth Center's executive director.

Completion will take two years, but supporters are already salivating about the possibilities.

The facilities will provide badly needed lab space for hospitality classes at local high schools and Dona Ana Branch Community College. Students from NMSU's hotel, restaurant and tourism management program can learn how to serve their community as they sharpen their culinary skills at the center. Aspiring chefs of all ages could master foods from tostadas to French pastry.

Teens could progress from high school hospitality classes to the two-year community college program to a bachelor's degree from NMSU, thanks to articulation agreements among the schools.

"They could finish with six years of education and several hundred hours of work experience, which puts them in good standing for the job market," says John Hartley, '94, DABCC hospitality instructor and Court Youth Center board member.

Welfare-to-work training could prepare participants for jobs in the fast-growing restaurant, hotel and tourism fields. The New Mexico Works project, administered through NMSU's Cooperative Extension Service, is a partner in the grant.

Training and hands-on experience puts students on the fast track to higher-paying management positions, Mandabach and Hartley say.

"There are good jobs in the hospitality business, and the pay keeps leapfrogging as skills increase," Mandabach says. "Many of the jobs are entrepreneurial, opening businesses that provide jobs for other people."

Irene Oliver-Lewis, Court Youth Center director

There will be room at the community cocina's table for people of many ages an interests, Oliver-Lewis says. "It's just like being at home with family," she says. "You always end up congregating in the kitchen."

D'Lyn Ford, '97

Youth center's students try hands at digital art

At first glance, computers and art don't seem to mix. But looking at the projects created in Court Youth Center's new computer lab will soon change your mind.

NMSU and Court Youth Center teamed up to create the lab, made possible by U S WEST's donation of four computers, a server and $15,000. Students from NMSU's Alliance for Minority Participation, funded by the National Science Foundation, helped set up the lab, lead sessions there and serve as peer mentors for the center's students, who range from grade schoolers to teen-agers. The participants learn about computers by creating digital art.

"It's a great example of partnership and collaboration," said Irene Oliver-Lewis, '74, '75, '78, Court Youth Center executive director/theater artist. "We've had a wonderful response so far. About 200 students used the lab over the summer, and since then we've had more requests than we could accommodate."

Future plans call for more computers and more open hours for the lab. "I'd like to see it open to the community," Oliver-Lewis said, "with classes at all skill levels."

NMSU electrical engineering technology senior Ricardo Ortiz and electrical engineering sophomore Andre Campbell planned and taught the summer classes. Campbell said the participants caught on quickly. Younger students liked the program that squished and stretched photos, and older participants used software to stylize images from a digital camera, he said.

Rudi Schoenmackers, NMSU AMP co-director, said the computer lab fills a technology component at the center. It's important to teach people to use the computer by incorporating their interests, he said. He hopes to eventually use them for digital video, animation and presentations.

The project benefits all involved, Schoenmackers said. The AMP students gain computer, teaching and mentoring experience and Court Youth Center patrons can access the Internet, use word processing and create fantastic images. Looks like a pretty good match, after all.

Court Youth Center student Cindy Castaneda, front, receives help in the new computer lab from NMSU electrical engineering sophomore and AMP student Laquita Falkner, while Court Youth Center student Manuel Huerta, seated, follows instructions from AMP student and NMSU electrical engineering sophomore Andre Campbell. Photo by Michael Kiernan

Rachel Kendall