A Brooklyn high school student is nearing the end of a year-long internship during which she spent one day a week learning the ins and outs of CulinArt’s corporate support and unit-level functions.
Grace Cruz is a junior at Cristo Rey High School, which partners with more than 80 businesses and organizations—including law firms, financial institutions, schools, healthcare providers, and at least one foodservice management firm—to create work study opportunities for students from local communities. The program matches high-performing, motivated young people with leading companies throughout New York City.
Students in the program attend classes four days a week and participate in work study one day a week, from September through June, during all four years of high school. On their workday, students experience a typical “9 to 5” workday.
Last September, Grace spent her first day of work for CulinArt in orientation sessions with Jen Espada, marketing and engagement manager (who coordinated Grace’s activities all year long), at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), and online with Director of HR Tina Halvatzis, and HR Business Partner Nicole Henry. In fact, Grace spent many of her Wednesdays in Teams meeting with representatives from various CulinArt support departments, including Marketing, Communications, Finance, Operational Excellence, and Wellness and Sustainability.
Grace participated in a training day at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, not far from the U.N., where the HR team introduced her to Disney-inspired customer service, CulinArt HR fundamentals, and attendance policy expectations—gaining insight into the standards that support both associate engagement and service excellence. Accompanied by Stephanie Dorfman, MS, RDN, she then supported a Wellness Smoothie Bike event, interacting with guests and educating them on how to make nutritious smoothies while also having fun riding the Fender Blender cycle.
Grace also spent a fair amount of time United Nations Headquarters, in the Midtown East area of Manhattan, where she:
- Worked on menu development—helping to update Webtrition entries—with Angie Peccini, corporate chef for culinary systems and standards.
- Helped Espada create a short video of a Heritage Kitchen appearance at the UN by Bazodee Street Foods, a provider of Trinidadian cuisine, for @culinarteating.
- Coordinated marketing activities with Amanda Fishbaugh, director of marketing.
- Prepared breakfast sandwiches in a production kitchen with Max Gonzalez, cook.
- Assembled flatbread pizza and breakfast wraps, stocked display cases, served customers, and ran register at the U.N.’s Café Vienna, under the watchful eye of Justin Baez, café manager.
Further, Grace was at Stryker, in Mahwah, N.J., in late April for CulinArt’s Waste Warrior Competition, part of Stop Food Waste Day, lending a hand where needed as the competing chefs prepared their dishes with both “great taste” and “least waste” in mind.
Of her experiences with CulinArt this past year, Grace says, “CulinArt has assisted in shaping and broadening my career aspirations, especially with the wide amount of faculty informing me of the complete changes and turns in their career paths. CulinArt inspired me to keep an open mind to the endless career possibilities for my future and taught me that no matter where I end up, there is always something new for me to learn.”