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Published on Wednesday, Aug 01, 2007
Jacob Everly dreams about one day opening a bakery.
He sees himself making cookies, pies, and cakes especially large, elaborately decorated wedding cakes.
The fact that his dream for the future involves baking and wedding cakes comes as a bit of a surprise to Everly, a 25-year-old high school dropout who has been living on public assistance.
By his own admission, Everly wasted a good bit of his first 25 years.
''I was a punk in high school,'' he says flatly.
He dropped out of Akron's Garfield High School and skipped from job to job, along the way fathering three children and getting divorced.
His life was not a pretty picture.
But earlier this year an opportunity came along for Everly and his girlfriend, Tiffanny Goodhart, that they believe will help them turn their lives around.
They were two of 20 people selected to take part in a pilot program between the University of Akron's School of Hospitality Management and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, to train people on public assistance to work in the food service industry.
For the past five weeks, the two have taken classes at UA learning the basics of food service and dining room management.
Jamal Feerasta, the UA professor who helped develop the program, said he's proud of the inaugural class, whose members have gone from having zero experience to applying for jobs in the industry.
Chef Richard Alford, one of the group's teachers, said the class members had as much enthusiasm as, if not more than, the regular students enrolled in UA's hospitality program.
Clad in a floppy chef's hat and smock, Everly stood in the kitchen of UA's Crystal Room Restaurant and reflected on how much his life has changed since he started taking the class.
Monday was graduation day for the 11 students who completed the program.
The class's final exam was to prepare lunch for 70 the family members, friends, and school administrators who would be attending their graduation.
Goodhart served as head pastry chef for the event and Everly was her assistant.
Together, they made a chocolate cake dusted with powdered sugar, blueberry pie with a lemon streusel topping, apple strudel, nut strudel, and dinner rolls all from scratch.
Between the start of the class and the graduation ceremony, three things have happened to Everly that are helping to change his life.
First, he's close to getting a job in food service at Akron Children's Hospital that pays $9 per hour which he says is a lot better than a welfare check. Goodhart is hoping to find a job in a bakery.
Second, Everly has been able to obtain $7,000 in scholarships to help further his education in food service. He's applied to be a student in UA's hospitality program.
The money came through an Internet program that helps to match students with scholarships. As part of the program, Everly had to write a 500-word essay on what he hoped to do.
''I told them I was trying to better my life, trying to find a new path,'' he said.
Lastly, and perhaps for the first time, Everly has a goal in life he can see the bakery in his and Goodhart's future.
Until next week, have fun in the kitchen you never know what kind of dreams may develop there.
Lisa A. Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or labraham@thebeaconjournal.com.
Jacob Everly dreams about one day opening a bakery.
Get the full article here.
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