Education: Mt. Madonna’s Adulting 101 prepares seniors for life after high school

Meal cooked by students was a big hit for Oakwood School staff

Photo courtesy Mt. Madonna School
Senior Alyssa Manzur cooks a meal for staff and visitors as part of the school’s Adulting 101 class.

By Leigh Ann Clifton

As a part of their capstone culinary arts class, Mount Madonna School high school seniors prepared and served a gourmet four-course meal for staff and visitors in early December.

The meal, which consisted of a butternut squash risotto, an apple walnut salad, bread and chocolate mousse, was executed by the students from concept to presentation. As they cooked, the group talked through their processes, problem solved, delegated tasks, laughed and danced to music.

“Ben, can you help me here? I’m horrible at separating egg whites,” said senior Grace Timan, who was working on the chocolate mousse.

“Sure,” said classmate Ben Pearson laughing, and demonstrated to Timan how to catch the egg yolk in the shell.

“Oh, that’s how it’s done,” Timan said. “Thank you!”

Meanwhile, other students were toasting walnuts, chopping herbs, preparing the broth, and keeping up with dishes as they went.

“The trick to risotto is to toast everything together for two minutes, and then add the broth,” high school teacher Sara Sobkoviak instructed the class. Sobkoviak leads the Adulting 101 class at MMS, which equips students in real-world skills such as culinary arts, gardening, financial planning, construction, child development, college readiness and more.

Savory smells wafted from the kitchen as students layered the mousse in small attractive serving glasses.

The meal was a big hit for the staff event.

“The love and the care these students put into making our food — you could taste it,” said Head of School Ann Goewert. “The best part was listening to them talk about the process and seeing their pride.”

Student Kayla Goldstein said she enjoys all the leadership opportunities given to seniors at MMS.

“Once you become a senior at Mount Madonna School, you get put in all these leadership roles and given all these responsibilities and are actually in charge of projects,” she said.

Goldstein talked about the skills in the kitchen that transfer to other facets of life.

“I think task delegation is something you learn in the kitchen,” she said. “It feels uncomfortable at first. But I think it’s a useful skill in the real world, and the more you do it, the more comfortable you get with it.”

Pearson said he enjoys the creative outlet of the kitchen. “I like that I can express that side of myself at MMS,” he said.

Timan nodded, and added, “Even though I’m not the best cook, I’m learning so much alongside my peers. We are a really close class, and we lean on each other. I’m not afraid to make mistakes or try new things. I think that’s what I really love about the Adulting 101 class.

Sobkoviak originally proposed the idea for the course based on her own interest in cooking and gardening and reflecting on how to best prepare students for life outside MMS.

“I saw our little ones were baking and working in the children’s garden, and I thought we were missing the big-kid version to bring their time here at MMS full circle,” Sobkoviak said.

At the heart of this program is the growth in confidence, pride in their work and that value and meaning that each student finds in the hands-on experience, she said.

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Leigh Ann Clifton is the director of marketing and communications for Mount Madonna School.

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