Northeast High School Team Wins At ProStart Student Invitational

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By Megan Sayles

Lenore Martin, a Northeast High School culinary teacher, joked that she remembers the moment she realized her students might be smarter than she.

When Martin was reading her students’ business proposal for the Maryland ProStart Student Invitational, she had to look up two words in a dictionary. This proposal would ultimately lead the team of five to winning first place at the event, which was held at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor on March 12.

The Maryland ProStart Invitational includes two competitions: management and culinary. The students compete for scholarships and the privilege of representing Maryland on the national level. This year, Northeast High School sent a team for each competition, but it was the management team that took home the prize against its five competitors. The team comprised Abby Kienast, Ellie Kienast, Jeremy Dawidowicz, Joshua Dawidowicz and Kyle Mosco.

For the management competition, students had to prepare a proposal for a restaurant concept and present it to a panel of judges.

“In general, we just wanted to be a friendly name that people could look up to so we could give back the community,” said Jeremy Dawidowicz, a senior member of the team.

After being told that the restaurant would be located in a college campus town, the Pasadena team came up with a school bus that was converted into a food truck and named Curb Appeal. Theirs was one of only two food truck designs and it focused on quick and easy meals for their target market: college students.

Their bus also featured an environmentally friendly concept, incorporating fresh produce, solar panels, and composting and recycling bins.

For Curb Appeal, the team had to devise a marketing plan, mission statement, menu, hours of operation and return investments. With this information, the team created two posters and was interviewed by 12 judges at the competition.

According to Josh Dawidowicz, the team had to present introductory statements on the spot with only about three minutes of preparation when the competition first started. There was some panic, but the team was able to pull it off.

“They were very prepared, and that’s what you have to be,” Martin said.

The group members concurred their favorite part of the competition was not only missing a day of school and staying in a fancy hotel but also getting to make connections with people in the food industry.

Kyle Mosco, a senior member of the team, said he plans to pursue baking and food service management in college. The ProStart competition showed him how to market, how to create menus and how to do pricing with a food business.

“The competitions are extremely valuable for their scholarship potential,” said Martin, explaining that some students are not going to a four-year college. In attending culinary school, it is possible that they will not graduate with tons of debt and will be able to easily translate their experience into the industry, according to Martin. At the national competition, students are able to win full scholarships to culinary schools.

The students expressed appreciation for Martin as their leader. Some of the students have had her for all four years of their time at Northeast High School and expressed that she was their favorite teacher. According to the group, she always lends a hand and inspires her students. The feeling was mutual for Martin.

“I have a feeling it will be many years until I have a team like I had this year,” Martin said.

In preparation of nationals, the team is working with a Northeast voice coach to make them louder, which was one of their only critiques from the judges, and promoting the business effectively.

They will compete against 46 states, as well as Puerto Rico and Germany, at Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C., from May 8 to May 10.

According to Jeremy Dawidowicz, the pressure is on. “We are making sure we are going to stand out at nationals and represent Maryland,” he said.

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