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After such a long prison sentence I was both nervous and excited to embark on my culinary adventure. Inspired by both my yia yia (grandma in Greek) and Aunt Panayota who owned her own restaurant for years prior to her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis I was ready to follow in their footsteps and learn as much as I could from the program at Second Helpings.

Second Helpings is a nonprofit organization with a mission toaddress hunger today and build self-sufficiency to prevent hunger tomorrow thru:Food Rescue,Hunger Relief, andCulinary Job Training (CJT). Food Rescue manages food donations and rescues over 3.6 million pounds of food each year. Hunger Relief prepares more than 4,000 nutritious meals each day to send to community partners that help to feed the community. And the CJT program offersfree job training for those looking to work in the food industry; with over 1,000 CJT graduates. You can find general information about Second Helpings athttps://www.secondhelpings.org/. And we would not be able to fulfill the mission without incredible volunteers.

TheCulinary Job Training (CJT) program is afree 7-week job training program designed to prepare individuals for a career in the culinary industry. CJT students are in class every day, Monday thru Friday. While in the CJT program, students learn a wide range of skills that employers look for in hiring people. From culinary skills, job skills, life skills and more. The CJT Team is passionate about equipping students with the tools they need to jump start a career and passion. The Employment Specialist, Anne works with students on everything from writing their culinary resume, job search skills, interview skills, and more. The CJT Chefs acknowledge the students are their dish. The Chefs take to heart the lessons and encouragement they pour into CJT students and graduates.

My time at SH was spent working closely with 7 other students: Alexandra, Dominique, Eric, Hilary, Joeneal, Kevin, and Shewanna. The Culinary Job Training program strived to equip us with the skills and tools needed to begin an incredible career in the food industry, and learn more than industry standards. We worked on knife skills, basic cookery, culinary math, time management, financial literacy, life skills and team building. I learned how to fabricate a chicken and sharpen my knives along with so much more.

The lessons taught were in support of Chef Kathy Jones, SH Executive Chef, Chef Keith Brooks, CJT Instructor, and Chef Kyle Burnett, CJT Manager. The Chefs were passionate about seeing us excel. " The students are our dish" the Chefs exclaimed. The passion the Chefs demonstrated and their dedication to my success was remarkable. Tonya knew that I had recently been recently from a long prison sentence so always made sure to have a food bag to give me each week that lasted me for days. It always had meat, dairy products, vegetables as well as several other wonderful and edible food that had been donated to the organization. I really needed the help at the time. Between the courses and assistance that I received from Second Helpings I can not express my gratitude in words. I gained so much from the program.

I ended up graduating from the program on September 27, 2019. Some of my accomplishments while in the program included highest ServSafe score. This is one of the coveted skill acknowledgments in the culinary industry. Additionally, I tested for and was awarded the Kitchen Cook/START certification, issued by the American Hotel and Lodging Educational Institute. These are just a couple of the accolades I worked for while in the CJT program, and this is in addition to the certificate of completion I earned at the successful completion of the program.

Tonya told me that the program would count as three credits to obtain a culinary degree at Indianapolis Ivy Tech College. My confidence had grown despite dealing with severe institutionalization so although still nervous I was ready to take the next step to get my cuinary degree at Ivy Tech. Furthermore, I began employment in the culinary industry prior to graduation and continued to maintain that employment while attending the culinary and hospitality program at Ivy Tech.

Question:

Explain this in an organized, detailed manner in first person using great adjectives and adverbs. Please elaborate and do not shorten in as details are very important. Explain emotions and feelings....