Imagine having the skills required to design and decorate your own baked goods, topped off with flower arrangements and fondant. Or being able to impress your family with your newest specialty cake week after week that you baked in class.
These skills are a reality for those students who decide to take the second year of the diploma-granting baking and pastry arts program.
The second year is a new addition to the program. In previous years, it ran for one year and students received a certificate. The fall semester of 2017 was the first time ever this semester has been in action, and both students and professors of the program are experiencing it for the first time.
The professors of the program, previous program coordinator, Anthony Bond, and academic chair of the baking and pastry arts program, Michael Bakogeorge, have been working throughout the last few years to develop the second year.
Baking and pastry arts student, Emma Hyslop, took the second year in hopes of gaining more advanced skills to help her for the future.
“First year the curriculum was more general and taught us the basics,” said Hyslop. “The second year teaches us how to build specific skills from what we learned last year.”
After all the work with finding teachers, creating material and getting approval, the program has finally been able to begin.
Harsh Singh, a professor and the current coordinator of the baking and pastry arts program, was excited to see how the semester would fall out. His biggest hope is that these students can further their skills to meet the industry standards and feel confident in what they are doing.
“We are preparing future leaders for this industry,” said Singh.
As the first semester is coming to an end, the professors noted some changes to be made, which are currently being worked on to help develop the next term.
“After the program ran for the first semester we found some things that need to be tweaked,” said Singh. “We had to add some hours and change some things to make it more correct for what is needed in the industry now.”
Students still have the option to complete only the first year and if they would like, still enroll in the diploma program if they change their mind.
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