BCS Advantage Magazine Special Edition #9 | Page 16

CTE Kitchens
By Tim Reaves and Stacia Harris, Communications Department
The savory aromas of bacon and garlic bread mingle with rich chocolate in Erwin High School’s recently
renovated Food Lab.
The classroom looks like a resort restaurant during Erwin High School’s weeklong Career Academy Hospitality
Camp, with student chefs mixing a Zuppa Toscana soup, chopping asparagus, and preparing strawberry
yogurt pops on the stainless steel kitchen lines.
“Hospitality Camp is the pinnacle of what Career Academy aims to do – expand our students’ experiences
beyond the walls of the classroom,” said Robyn Pass, Career Academy Coordinator at Erwin High. “All of
our participants engaged in hands on, real world experiences in the hospitality field.”
At the 2017 camp, Erwin students shadowed retailers at Asheville Mall, restauranteurs at Blaze Pizza, tour
guides with Gray Line Trolley Tours, and hoteliers at the Omni Grove Park Inn and DoubleTree, following a
full range of different hospitality roles and watching top notch customer service in action.
“We learned how to work a cash register, how to stock and set up basically everything in a store,” said
Erwin graduate Chelsey Jones. “It’s math on the register, and it’s also social skills.”
“You have to work together and communicate to get things done,” added rising senior Lizzie Williams.
Clyde A. Erwin Family and Consumer Sciences
teacher Kady Grogan Rice helps a student with
a dish during during Erwin High School’s Career
Academy Hospitality Camp.
14
Clyde A. Erwin High School students chop and prepare
asparagus as part of a dish for a mock dinner during
Erwin High School’s Career Academy Hospitality Camp.