Ebonee Johnson ’19 is the food service manager at Great Oaks Charter School located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America where she obtained both her Associate’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Baking and Pastry Arts and Hospitality Management. Ebonee is a recent graduate of the Master of Arts in Leadership program at Albertus Magnus College. Her ultimate goal is to open a school in the New Haven area that will provide its students with traditional and experiential culinary arts, baking & pastry arts and leadership skills. Hear about Ebonee’s experience in turning her passion into a leadership project.
My Capstone was something I secretly feared throughout the course of my
Master of Arts in Leadership (MOL) program. The thought of trying to come up with and complete a research project in 8-weeks seemed utterly impossible to me, especially with my schedule. But when I walked into my last course, all of my anxiety and fears were wiped away.
“Ebonee, do what you love!” Dr. Howard Fero said.
Throughout the program, my love for baking and pastry was made known to my professors and fellow classmates. I never thought to combine it with my newfound love for leadership. But lo and behold, that is exactly what happened! After further discussion with Dr. Fero, I began to develop a cupcake decorating and leadership class for the youth ministry at Healing Nations in Christ Church. The youth group I taught ranged in ages from ten to seventeen. The topics that were covered were:
1. The importance of ingredients (teamwork)
2. Steps to decorating cupcakes (what makes someone a leader)
3. The finished product (individuality, characteristics)
“In my student’s hands, a simple recipe and technique became an experience, just as in the hands of a good leader, a group of people becomes a team.”
My initial expectations for this class were to enlighten the adolescents of the importance of learning leadership and teamwork at this age and offer a deeper understanding of the concepts that span traditional subject boundaries. This project surpassed those expectations by providing a context for learning in several areas: general and subject based knowledge; thinking/problem-solving skills, hands-on experience and life skills. I found that performing the cupcake decorating first helped the students to be more relaxed, welcoming, engaged and just enjoy the activity. This broke the ice to get them to really communicate openly and honestly during the leadership session. The class brought up some amazing points when asked about being a leader. They gave examples of times when they were leaders and when they were followers.
My lesson formed a lasting bond that can now continue to progress each month as the ‘Chosen Generation’ youth group continues to meet. This project afforded both the youth, as well as myself, a chance to know one another on a more understanding level. Finally, this class gave me an appreciation for our next generation and an even deeper desire to pour the critical leadership principles I have learned over the course of this year into them.