Skip to main content
 

For immediate use

 

UNC-Chapel Hill’s Friday Center and Carolina Dining Services offer cooking class to special group of students

 

(Chapel Hill, N.C. – Dec. 17, 2015) – The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education recently partnered with Carolina Dining Services to host a unique educational event for a group of students from the PATHSS high school – a cooking class. PATHSS is a pilot transition initiative on Carolina’s campus for Chapel Hill Carrboro City high school students between the ages of 18-22 with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

 

Emphasizing self-determination and individual capacity building, PATHSS uses evidence-based practices to develop and strengthen independent living and marketable work-readiness skills through intensive campus employer externships, community-based learning, and classroom instruction.

 

“The Friday Center’s mission is to support the educational needs of all of the citizens of North Carolina,” said Friday Center director Robert Bruce. “We knew that this group of students needed practical life skills, so we approached Carolina Dining Services with the idea of designing a cooking class for them. Executive Chef Michael Gueiss took it from there. We could not have been more pleased with the wonderful job he did in designing this course for the PATHSS students.”

 

Chef Gueiss designed a simple, elegant meal of rosemary and thyme grilled shrimp, parsley and cucumber couscous salad, sautéed grape tomatoes with preserved lemon, and cranberry oatmeal baked apples for dessert.

 

Students received recipe cards and gathered around a cooking station to watch the chef present a step-by-step demonstration of the meal preparation. They were invited to touch, smell and taste the ingredients while Chef Gueiss demonstrated chopping and cooking methods. “I love this!” shouted one of the students several times throughout the demonstration.

 

As the shrimp sizzled in the pan and the smell of fresh herbs filled the air, the students began to anticipate the best part of the lesson—eating. One student summed up the experience, “Most delicious lunch EVER!”

 

Gueiss said he enjoyed engaging with the class and added, “When you can teach something, it makes you feel good.”

 

For more information about PATHSS, contact Dana Hanson-Baldauf: hansonda@email.unc.edu.

 

 

-Carolina-

 

 

About the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the nation’s first public university, is a global higher education leader known for innovative teaching, research and public service. A member of the prestigious Association of American Universities, Carolina regularly ranks as the best value for academic quality in U.S. public higher education. Now in its third century, the University offers 77 bachelor’s, 113 master’s, 68 doctorate and seven professional degree programs through 14 schools and the College of Arts and Sciences. Every day, faculty – including two Nobel laureates – staff and students shape their teaching, research and public service to meet North Carolina’s most pressing needs in every region and all 100 counties. Carolina’s more than 308,000 alumni live in all 50 states and 150 countries. More than 167,000 live in North Carolina.

 

About the William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education

The Friday Center is UNC-Chapel Hill’s center for continuing education, serving the varied needs of adult learners through credit and noncredit course offerings and the operation of a continuing education conference facility.

 

Friday Center contact: Meredith Gulley, mcgulley@email.unc.edu

Communications and Public Affairs contact: MC VanGraafeiland, (919) 962-7090, mc.vangraafeiland@unc.edu

 

Comments are closed.