Perspectives on the future of education from Learn4Life
From High School Culinary Program to Micro-Bakery Owner
There’s a lot more to starting a bakery business than just the love of making pastries, as Evelyn R. discovered as a high school student enrolled in a culinary CTE (career technical education) program.
“With my passion for baking and all the knowledge I learned from the culinary program, I decided to start my own micro-bakery,Le Petit Patissier, after I graduated. It had been something that I wanted to do for a while, but didn’t know how to start,” said Evelyn. “Thankfully everything that I was taught helped me begin my business – especially the budgeting and business planning.”
After being homeschooled through junior high, Evelyn came to Learn4Life as a freshman and was thrilled to see they had a culinary arts program with a professional chef as a teacher. We launched a robust culinary program 14 years ago, in which students earn ServSafe and CPR certifications.
Destiny, pictured left, graduates from the Certified Nurse's Assistant program at Learn4Life
What are the chances that a teen mother of two would graduate high school, earn certification as a nursing assistant and be making plans to go to college to pursue a dream of someday going to medical school to become a pediatric oncologist?
Pretty low – unless you happen to find a high school like Learn4Life that helps teen mothers and other students who have struggled with their education. For Destiny L. it was a life saver.
“After the birth of my daughter, I experienced severe postpartum depression. I didn't have the motivation to continue school or deal with the additional stress,” Destiny explained.
That’s not surprising, since according to a National Institutes of Health study, adolescent mothers are twice as likely as their adult counterparts to have postpartum depression.
Since fewer than 10 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions keep them, it’s a wonder why anyone bothers. Instead, we encourage students to set goals that are more realistic to achieve and that will help motivate teens as they near adulthood.
“When students first enroll, we teach them to set both short- and long-term goals,” explained Shelly Hanes, superintendent. “So, while they keep their eye on the big things like graduating, furthering their education or job training, the smaller goals that they can accomplish every week boost their confidence that they can do anything they set their mind to.”
Hanes points out that goal setting is part of Learn4Life’s personalized learning model and is customized for each student. She said that goal setting for teens falls into four key areas.
