With Wednesday”s signing of an articulation agreement between the Mississippi University for Women”s Culinary Arts Institute and the National Restaurant Association, the university will have a wider presence on the state and national levels, and a bigger opportunity to recruit more students to the program.
“This is a big day for our school in signing this agreement with the National Restaurant Association,” said MUW President Dr. Claudia A. Limbert.
The agreement puts the school on an equal national recruiting stage with well-known culinary arts programs including Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., Limbert added.
“We are proud to have the opportunity to get some outstanding students to be a part of our program,” said Hal Jenkins, MUW interim provost and vice president of academic affairs.
Along with the chance to broaden the scope of recruiting students to this program, the new agreement also gives The W access to 27 Mississippi schools that offer the ProStart program, a career-building program for high school students who are interested in culinary arts.
“Students in grades 10-12 are given a chance to learn about the fundamentals of food-service safety, production and management. In a two-year period, these students are expected to receive over 400 hours of training to prepare them for working in the real world,” said Mike Cashion, executive director of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association.
Cashion added he is pleased the association has entered into a formal partnership with MUW”s Culinary Arts Institute.
“This partnership will provide Mississippi students wanting to study culinary arts with the opportunity to receive a great education in this field,” he said.
The CAI has an average enrollment of 120 students per year in its program, said Chef Erich H. Ogle, interim director of MUW”s Culinary Arts Institute.
“We think this is going to be a great asset for the Culinary Arts Institute in that we will be able to recruit more students, adding to our enrollment,” he said.
Carol Dowdy, culinary arts instructor at the McKellar Technology Center at Columbus High said that her students who want to study culinary arts can choose to stay closer to home.
“I have several students who know they want to major in culinary arts, but they are not sure where they want to go. Through this partnership, they can have an easier decision,” she said.
The Culinary Arts Institute, which is an institute of the School of Professional Studies at MUW, is the only culinary institute in the state and the only one in the region that offers a B.S. in culinary arts. It was started in 1996; the first seven students were admitted in the fall of 1997.
Allen Baswell was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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