Most ProStart graduates have a direct pathway from the high school classroom to a class roster in a post-secondary institution. However, not every road leads to additional study beyond high school. ProStart prepares students for all career opportunities, including students who go directly into the workforce after graduation.

Kaelyn Sharp, a 2001 graduate from Molalla High School, had taken both required program classes with veteran ProStart teacher Carolyn Nyquist (who incidentally will be starting up McMinnville High School’s ProStart program for the 2006-07 school year). Sharp’s keen interest in the industry became honed on refining her skills, and she discovered what she was learning in the classroom easily translated to experience in the workplace.

“Ms. Nyquist taught me a lot in the classroom. She helped us learn to jump in and take initiative, which has helped me in the long run. While at Molalla High School, we learned the basics and Ms. Nyquist let us look through cookbooks and create our own dishes. This flexibility helped me become a better cook – which gave me the challenge of being creative. Through the ProStart classes, I also learned the dishes and which sauces go with certain foods.”

Even while in school, she was working at the MarKum Inn near Mount Angel. Sharp started as a dishwasher there and worked her way up to a line cook position. Her career pathway took her to the Miller’s Homestead Restaurant in Canby – where she helped open the restaurant in summer 2001 as a cook.

After high school, going on to culinary school after high school wasn’t for Sharp, who mused about her own career pathway since graduating. “Being self-taught is so much more of a better learning experience than going to culinary school, since you can still work under great chefs and learn a lot. For me, hands-on was a lot easier, and ProStart helped give me the basic skills to start!”

Sharp’s next career steps took her to the DoubleTree Hotel Downtown in the kitchen as a lead line cook, then at Caprial’s Bistro as pantry cook, and eventually to the Monarch Hotel as lead cook. Currently, Sharp is working at the McCormick & Schmick’s Bridgeport Village location as cook, and was on hand for the store’s opening in fall 2005.

Five years after graduating, Sharp is enthusiastic about her career and sees how ProStart helped her get started.

“It’s a great industry to work for – it’s a fun atmosphere and you get to meet and work with great people. ProStart is a great starting program to figure out how the industry runs and whether you want to go further in it or not. You’ll be able to figure that out because you learn so much about the industry that you can make decisions about your career. You can learn your own rhythm in it,” she observed.

This year, she felt a connection with Molalla High School who was struggling to prepare for the state culinary and management championships that took place in Portland back in April. The culinary team still didn’t have a chef mentor, and Sharp saw an opportunity to showcase the hospitality industry to the Molalla students. For her, the best part was seeing the students get fired up about culinary arts and see that same passion for the industry building in the classroom that she felt at that age.

In addition to volunteering her time with Molalla High School, Sharp has also been busy with a new addition in her life. Her baby boy Koi Nicholas was born on June 18th and while she is spending maternity time with him now, she is planning on going back to work at McCormick & Schmick’s in August to pursue her next step career goal of becoming a sous chef. Her dream is to become an executive chef and perhaps someday becoming a corporate training chef. Being only five years out of high school and highly motivated, it is easy to see her achieving this dream through her use of knowledge gained through ProStart.