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As Philadelphia public high school students enrolled in the C-CAP culinary arts program prepare for their summer vacation, it's appropriate to pause and take a few minutes (to stop and savor the soup, as it were) and to review all the excitement, accomplishments and achievements of the last school year. And what a year it was, with more students than ever participating, more industry professionals partnering, more of the press and general public taking notice, and most important with more scholarships and internships being awarded to C-CAP students.
For those unfamiliar with it, C-CAP, which stands for Careers through Culinary Arts Program, is a marvelous school-to-career program that links public high schools to the food service industry. It does this by providing volunteer industry professionals, teacher training and sponsor donations for the students, as well as practical training and college/ career advising to the students. Equally important, C-CAP helps arrange internships and annually awards more $1 million in scholarships to elite institutions involved in the culinary arts.
Founded in New York City by chef, author and educational visionary Richard Grausman, over the past decade C-CAP has expanded to school systems in other American cities and has trained nearly 100,000 students, including some who are now executive chefs and successful restaurant entrepreneurs in their own right. So successful has the program been that in 1997 Grausman was awarded The President's Service Award, the highest recognition given by The White House for volunteer service.
C-CAP came to the School District of Philadelphia in the 1999-2000 school year, and from the very beginning it has been administered as a partnership with Communities In Schools of Philadelphia, Inc. In the current school year more than 1,200 students in 13 of the District's high schools are enrolled. A look back at just some of the major C-CAP activities of the last school year will give you some idea of how truly broad and rich the program is, and what the current crop of students have on their plates for the months ahead.
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