Spotlight on Student Engagement

From Guest Blogger Amy Dziekonski….
Amy is a Program Officer at the DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation and recently visited our Brainfood Kitchen for her annual site visit. She later wrote an article for her organization’s monthly newsletter about her day at Brainfood.

Here’s what Amy had to say:

Brainfood, I sometimes joke, is a great grantee because they feed me at the end of every site visit. I must admit that this is a pretty nice perk for being their program officer, but the real reason I love to step into their kitchen has nothing to do with the food and everything to do with their young people. Let me take you, for a moment, into their kitchen…

It’s a cold January night around 4 pm in an industrial kitchen in the basement of a church in the heart of Chinatown. The space is filled with twenty DC high school students chatting about upcoming exams, admiring a classmate’s new cell phone, and discussing the silly thing a teacher did at school that day. Mixed in with this crowd you will find Brainfood staff member Carina Gervacio and three Brainfood volunteers conversing with the students.

The first thing that strikes you is how at ease these high schoolers are in this kitchen.  You must first know that these students come from neighborhoods all over DC. They represent a diverse array of backgrounds, personalities and interests. Many had never met before they showed up for the first day of Brainfood a few months ago. And yet there is already a palpable level of comfort and camaraderie between these young people and the staff.

Carina checks the clock—it’s a bit after 4 pm—and announces it’s time to start. Everyone quickly circles up around her table. It’s apparent by the small piece of chicken on the cutting board in front of her that today’s class is on chicken wings. But before she gets to that she pauses to have each participant and volunteer say their name and what they would like to work on today. “I want to work on my knife skills”, “I want to focus on following the recipe”, or “I want to be a good group member” are some of the goals shared. They are all greeted with a positive nod or word from Carina who finishes the circle with her own goal for the class. No one is left out.

Now it’s time for the chicken wing. Carina picks it up and announces that today they are going to be making a variety of chicken wing recipes. The bit of bird might not be the most elegant food item but Carina quickly has this group focused on the poultry as she demonstrates the proper way to separate a chicken wing. The participants lean in closer so they can see the wing joint she is currently talking about and watch as she carefully moves her knife through it. The room is silent except for Carina’s voice.

Soon it’s time to break into groups and start cooking. Each participant gets to choose the recipe that they want to work on. Recipe in hand they each move into their groups and start to prep. There are now six groups of 3-4 participants spread across four metal tables with their recipes.  

Each group is responsible for a chicken wing dish and dipping sauce. The participants take these tasks seriously and rapidly begin to review their recipes, and gather ingredients and the cooking implements they will need to make their dishes. They seem focused and content as they start measuring, chopping and mixing.  The kitchen is quickly filled with the intoxicating smells of garlic and spices.

As you watch these young people working, what’s impressive is how easy these transitions between program components have been and further how well each group now seems to be working together.  What you hear, if you listen closely, are groups of young people who genuinely like what they are doing in the kitchen and working with those around them.  They are sharing stories about their days, about chicken recipes their families make, about what colleges they’re applying to. What you won’t hear is negative attitudes, fighting or bad words—these are all against the group expectations these young people set together in the fall when they began the program. And yes, they do remind each other of these expectations when someone violates them.

It is a church kitchen that they’re in, certainly, but it is also their own Brainfood space. You know this before you even enter--their names and photos are on a poster at the door. In this kitchen they can forget about struggles at school or at home; they can interact with adults who respect them and want to be there with them—Brainfood is lucky enough to have a waiting list of adults eager to volunteer to do just this; and they can learn how to cook for themselves and their families while trying out new foods and learning how to budget.

This safe and positive learning space was created intentionally.   It began on this night when Carina asked students and volunteers all to share a goal at the start of program. This simple moment as they stood circled up was a chance for them all to stop, look at their kitchen colleagues, and hear what they wanted to do that day. It continued as Carina offered the additional incentive of digging into those tasty wings they had cooked at the end of the program day.  To be able to do that, each participant knew, they’d have to work as a team to follow the recipe. They’d probably also need a bit of guidance from the adept staff who were always ready to provide just that.

This space was also created by the young people themselves. They joined this program probably because cooking sounded cool.  And it is—Carina, Amy and Paul at Brainfood have made sure that there are plenty of fun recipes for them to make, many of which are the dishes that participants have specifically asked to learn to prepare. The young people also keep coming back though, as some of the Brainfood participants I spoke with that night said, because of the people they know they’ll get to see there.  “It’s fun” one said, “the staff are really friendly…and everyone gets along”, his classmate added, “it’s beautiful” another shared. 

It’s after 6 pm now and all of the chicken wings have been consumed. Carina again brings everyone together. She asks them all to share an appreciation of some kind with the group. Each participant and volunteer gives a special thank you to someone else in the group. These “thank you”s include things like an appreciation for the three classmates who finished up washing all of the dishes in the back, and praise for supportive teammates. There are lots of smiles. No one seems to be in a rush to leave the kitchen tonight. 

- Amy Dziekonski, Program Officer at DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation