I had the pleasure of working in the tutoring center with new students today. They had just begun their journey through the CIA and were in the Learning Center to practice knife cuts.  The most fascinating thing was that these students were from the most recent start date.  They hadn’t even had class yet.  They were just trying to get ahead.  I look forward to being able to be called an alumni of the CIA.

I worked with three students and found out a few things.  One of them was from Canada and had primarily worked front of the house service.  For those of you who don’t know front of the house service is things like waiting tables and clearing plates.  Not only was he not expiernced with wielding a knife.  He also was more familiar with the metric system.  All precision knife cuts are measured in the American system.  Nonetheless he was a pleasure to work with and he picked up on different skills quite quickly.

Once they were all finished they each went off to go to either class or back to the dorms to study.  The thing that struck me most was how they said, before leaving, “take care Nathan!”. Its the little things that make this job worth while.  I have gotten to work with so many people and each one of them is dedicated  and has their own unique personalities.  It is a welcome change after literally eating, learning and living with the some 19 individuals.

One of the most rewarding parts of my job is having students return to continue practice.  Usually when they return they tell me about how they were given an A on their knife tray or how their chef noticed improvement.  While their grade and performance is based sole on their work, hearing about actual improvement lets me know I am doing my job right.

I have only worked at the Learning Center for 2 weeks now but each day I find the job more and more awesome!