Riverside City College Culinary Graduate Finds Career Success

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - June 27, 2013 - PRLog -- In December 2012, Chantel Snider graduated as valedictorian of her class at the Riverside City College Culinary Academy. By January, she had lined up a job at Magnone Trattoria & Market, a new restaurant in Riverside. Two months later she was promoted to sous chef.

"She is a fast learner, diligent and never complaining," said Jacob Metsker, the general manager and executive chef of the restaurant. "I would give her a list of tasks to accomplish knowing it was near impossible and she would see it through. I knew when I handed her my blue apron that I had made the right choice. She instills the qualities that I want in my kitchen."

Snider, who is 26 and lives in Nuevo, learned those skills from her instructors at the Riverside City College culinary program, a nearly yearlong program that teaches students about the food service industry at a fraction of the cost of other culinary schools.

"I'm extremely grateful to the chefs at the culinary academy," Snider said. "They care greatly about what they’re doing. You get out of the program what you put into it, but you couldn't do it without them."

Snider grew up in the Perris/Nuevo area. She was home-schooled from fourth grade through high school. After graduating high school in 2004, she started taking classes at what was then the Moreno Valley campus of the Riverside College Community College District.

Her studies were disrupted when she moved with her husband, who was then in the Army, to Virginia in 2005. There, she worked at Ethan Allen, the furniture company, as a receptionist and in operations and customer service.

In 2009, they moved back to California. A year later, she re-enrolled at what is now known as Moreno Valley College with the plan of earning an associate's degree and transferring to a four-year college to study nutrition.

While on her way to earning two associate's degrees she found out about the Culinary Academy. She finished the associate's degrees in December 2011 and started the academy the next month.

"I knew in my mind if I was going to work with people to teach them to eat healthy I had to learn how to cook healthy," Snider said.

The Culinary Academy consists of three, 15-week sessions. The total cost of the program is about $2,000. During her year in the program, Snider won several competitions that match students against other students.

After graduating from the academy in December, Joni Cowgill, a job placement technician at Riverside City College, told Snider one day in January that Magnone Trattoria & Market was conducting interviews the following day.

Snider went and got the job. She credits the Culinary Academy with helping to make that possible.

About the RCCD CTE Community Collaborative: The Riverside Community College District CTE Community Collaborative is a grant funded effort to strengthen California’s workforce development efforts by linking the State’s investment in economic development with its investment in public instruction and other significant public investments.  CTE Community Collaboratives can be found throughout the State.  The role of the collaborative is to create seamless, non-redundant education and training in the region that corresponds to economic demand; strengthen CTE sectors; establish career exploration programs for middle school and high school students; and meet critical professional development needs and capacity building needs as it relates to career and technical education.

CTE Community Collaborative Partners: Three community colleges: Moreno Valley College, Norco College, and Riverside City College; Riverside County Office of Education Career Technical Education Unit; and six unified school districts: Alvord USD, Corona-Norco USD, Jurupa USD, Moreno Valley USD, Riverside USD, and Val Verde USD.