The City of Sturgis recently joined forces with the St Joseph County Intermediate School District’s Career and Technical Education program to provide courses next fall for Sturgis High School students in the culinary and hospitality fields. 

At a Sturgis city meeting on January 11, commissioners signed a one-year contract to utilize the Sturges-Young Civic Center space for the new programs. Director of CTE Jim Berry worked closely with now-retired City Manager Michael Hughes to bring the idea to fruition.

In October 2022, Berry attended a safety training for St Joseph County’s CTE students at Sturges-Young. “It’s a beautiful facility. They’ve got an amazing kitchen, commercial-grade quality stainless steel, all different varieties of equipment that can be used in the culinary industry. As you can imagine, I’ve got light bulbs going off,” Berry said of the experience. After and over the course of several months Berry met Hughes at Sturgis City Hall, bringing along crucial data from a Michigan Works! 2022 Annual Planning Information and Workforce Analysis Report. 

The report notes that service, as a broad occupational group, is projected to hold the largest distribution of jobs by 2028 in Southwest Michigan, exactly 2 percentage points greater than the statewide average. Director of Michigan Works! Jakki Bungart-Bibb added in her report that these projections through 2028 for Service in Southwest Michigan reflect alignment with the St. Joseph County ISD’s addition of Culinary Arts and Hospitality programming. 

Berry, who is in his first year as director for the county’s ISD, said the report combined with the passing of a 2019 county millage are partly responsible for bringing the new courses to Sturgis High School. “Part of that millage was to expand CTE program offerings,” Berry said. “You get stakeholder feedback, what the students are interested in terms of new courses…culinary arts is one of the programs that surfaced.” Constantine High School ran this Culinary Arts course as a local program this school year. Next year the current plan is for that course to run again, this time as part of the consortium for the county. 

The next steps for the new Sturgis programs will begin with Exploration Days hosted by Glen Oaks Community College. This is an annual event in which 10th graders across the county from eight different high schools attend to gain knowledge about the CTE experience. “The event is put on by CTE teachers and coordinators, and kids get a chance to come out and explore all the CTE programs, do some hands-on activities, and get to talk to instructors,” Berry said. 

Although there is not yet a Sturgis culinary program for Exploration Days to promote, the Constantine program will be on site with an informational booth. In the spring, students will have an opportunity to request the culinary or hospitality class, and instructors will begin filling the courses. Berry told Watershed Voice each class will have no more than 20 students. While the culinary arts class is guaranteed to run in the fall, the hospitality course will only proceed if it receives enough student interest. 

Next, teacher positions must be posted. Individuals with 4,000 hours of recent and relevant industry experience will be encouraged to apply for either course, or even both. Berry said he would want that teacher hired and on board as early as possible in order for that instructor to learn the space and its needs. “With a consortium we can help with buying what the kitchen needs based on the teacher’s recommendations.” Berry added that receiving a “needs analysis” on what the teacher wants and what the advisory committee recommends will be an important conversation.

The culinary arts curriculum will be entirely food-based with students receiving ServSafe credentialing; a food-safety training course recognized in the restaurant industry. Additionally, students will be learning cost control and culinary math, guest relations, sustainability and nutrition, basic cooking, and eight other units as part of the entire course. The hospitality curriculum will be service-oriented with students receiving education on management, understanding budgets, and customer service. 

While both programs are reminiscent of the home economic classes many adults remember taking in high school, Berry offered one difference saying, “This is definitely more deep. It will offer culture and diversity, and students will learn the different origins of food across the world.”

Beca Welty is a staff writer and columnist for Watershed Voice.