Cooper Thompson already has a sweet job lined up for summer and he can thank his soon-to-be alma mater of Morgantown High School for that.
He works at a chain restaurant known for its pastry delights.
“It’s a great job,” said the senior, who pulls pastries out of the oven and helps decorate cakes. He’s learning other aspects of the restaurant industry, as well.
“We’re really proud of him,” his teacher Brandi Ammons said Thursday morning in the main hallway of the school on Wilson Avenue.
“He can go as far in the industry as he wants to go.”
It’s all part of the Career Technical Education (CTE) component of Morgantown High, which offers immersive instruction in baking and business.
Ammons, who is CTE department chair, does her teaching in the kitchen, but she also offers insights from the marketing side of the menu.
Effectively communicating with your clients in a business setting is already important enough, said Ammons, who was West Virginia’s Family and Consumer Science Teacher of the Year in 2020.
It becomes even more so, she said, when food is involved.
“Our kids cater events in the school system,” she said. “That means sitting down with our principals, who are the clients in this case.”
The business classes taught by Nate Tallman and Joe Abu-Ghannam serve up fare from data-mining to other detailed analytics from the field of marketing – what Tallman calls the “high level.”
Students in both the baking and business offerings assemble portfolios of their work as part of their course requirements, Ammons said.
Donna Talerico, who is deputy superintendent of Mon’s school district, likes the mix of academic rigor and front-line, hands-on instruction.
“The CTE program at Morgantown High is such a resource,” she said. “It’s definitely a springboard to a career.”
Just ask Lily Allman. She’s taking the program with her after her graduation from high school next weekend.
She just completed the business component at MHS. This fall, she plans on being a hospitality and tourism major in college.
After that, she wants to travel the world, working for a major hotel chain.
“I’ve already learned a lot,” she said.
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