Diversified agriculture program coordinator Rosa Guedes, science and technology division chair Dave Thompson, culinary program coordinator Gene Evans and senior VP for academic affairs Dr. Rhonda Tracy discuss how the culinary and agriculture programs will work together.
West Virginia University at Parkersburg is accepting applications for its new culinary arts program, which will begin in January 2013. The applicant interview process will begin next week.
WVU Parkersburg’s Culinary Academy will open in the college’s newly renovated downtown center on Market Street. The program will blend traditional classroom and online courses, and foods grown by the Diversified Agriculture students will be used to prepare foods.
Curriculum will include all phases of cooking and provide students a local and more affordable option for culinary arts education. The downtown center includes a complete commercial kitchen for student training purposes and a small bistro area where second-year students will prepare and serve gourmet meals on a limited basis.
“I am very excited and extremely happy to see the program launch on schedule in January for the spring 2013 semester,” said culinary program coordinator Gene Evans. “I am ready to get back into the kitchen and begin the program with our inaugural class. Also, I’m enthusiastically looking forward to collaborating with our new diversified agriculture program to use fresh, local produce in our culinary facility.”
Students enrolled in the program can seek a one-year certificate or a two-year associate’s degree. Classes will be heavily laboratory based and filled with hands-on learning using industry-based standards. Students obtaining the associate’s degree can also receive their Certified Culinarian designation through the American Culinary Federation.
Students interested in applying can download the application from www.wvup.edu.
2 Comments
I’m interested in the culinary arts program . I want to learn how to make culture foods . I want to learn how to make different wines too . I want to teach a culinary arts program one day to people with disabilities to learn how to cook . I think it would be great to open up my own culinary arts school . I have family from Canada, Irland, Germany, and Korea . I want to learn from their cooking experiences involving recei from so many generations in my own family I want to learn from other cultures too when it comes to cooking / home made wines . I have thought about working at Cosmel, and Texas Road House in Ripley WV area as well as Bob Evans, and that new cafe of course in a hospitality setting as, for a start in a restraunt . I want to learn more hospitality skills than I did in school . I think would be great to open up a school restraunt / cafe / diner . I would like to take the hospitality course at RJTC in prostart to relate to diatectic, or nutrition program, and other programs too .
Eugenia,
This is a press release posted on West Virginia Executive magazine’s website on behalf of WVU Parkersburg. If you have questions, you will need to contact the college directly.