GREEN RIVER — Green River High School’s restaurant management students are getting hands on experience at local businesses.
Last week the students went to Sapporo in Rock Springs and this week they worked behind the scenes at Stellar Coffee. GRHS culinary arts teacher Marisa Kalinski said that this is her second year teaching this class, and is also the second year her students visited Sapporo. They also got some experience at Eve’s last year. Kalinski said that she has a lot more planned this year.
“Restaurant Management and Hospitality is more of a business class than culinary class in the sense we learn about running a restaurant and all the different types of food service in the hospitality industry,” she said. “I do still try to focus on the food aspect of things in this class, but we talk a lot of business information as well.”
The point of these field trips is to get a sense of how to run a business, with all the challenges and requirements. Kalinski said it’s very valuable for the students to speak with real local business owners.
“When we go out to these restaurants and businesses, and are able to talk with these business owners, we get to talk about how they got started, all the hoops they have to jump through to open a business, how the business runs, hiring employees, training employees go through, ordering products and inventory, and really just what it takes to manage and run the business,” she said.
While they discuss all of this in the classroom, Kalinski said that the hands on experience with the business owners gives the students a real world perspective. While at Sapporo, students also got to cook a little on the hibachi grills, and they got to make some drinks while visiting Stellar Coffee.
“The students have been loving the experiences because we talk about a lot of the business stuff in class, but hearing it from someone who has experienced it gives them a better understanding,” she said.
