Our second quarterly Community Relations Council meeting took place in our Culinary Café ‘restaurant’ yesterday. Center Director Tamer Koheil welcomed guests and gave some great updates on our center including the official start of Drivers Ed courses on center.

Culinary student Jordan Engelbach then gave a detailed description of the meal prepared by the students for our community guests. Business & Community Director Cassie Gudek addressed the room next — Cassie gave an overview of the Center, emphasizing the focus on community and the many ways we live out that mission: community service, employer engagement and hosting community events.

Cassie then introduced Culinary Student Julio Vargas who gave a great talk on his experiences in Job Shadowing and work based learning opportunities, closing with “and whenever possible, I want more of these opportunities!”

Later we heard from Darren Johnson of Chip N Nail, who also runs ‘Johnson Racing Team’, a US Legends Cars International racing team. Darren spoke of his experience hosting four electrical students during our Job Shadow Day in February. The students worked on installing batteries and tuning engines, helping to prepare the cars for racing season. Darren greatly enjoyed mentoring, remarking: “I saw them run out to their driver at the end of the day and say…’Can we stay for another 15 minutes??’”.

The main event of the luncheon was our interactive brainstorming session. Each table of four was instructed to introduce themselves, and discuss possible partnerships with the organizations they represent, are connected to, or support. They were asked to write down ideas that support student and community engagement. “Nominate a speaker for the table, because we’re going around the room to share those ideas”, Business & Community Director Cassie noted, “No pressure!”

The 9 tables of guests share over 20 partnership ideas involving more than a dozen different organizations. We are very excited to get started on these new partnerships that will work to support our students and our community.

Rhonda Kenny The Way Home
Holly Bilodeau The Way Home
Ofc. Linstad Manchester PD
Ofc. Ampuja Manchester PD
Steve Korzyniowski Macy Industries
Darren Johnson Johnson’s Racing Team & Chip N Nail
Douglass Osterhoudt NH Dept. of Education
Craig Joyce Joyce Sales Group – JSG Electrical
Mikayla Foster Rep. Ann Kuster’s Office
Andrea Reed Harbor Homes
Maura McGowan Front Door Agency
Sean Thomas Congressman Guinta’s Office
Christian Scott Manchester Christian Church
Sara Janes Hoag Primerica
Daryl Dembiec Maverick Integration
Bob Lenox Bel-air Nursing Home
Andy Hubbard Bel-air Nursing Home
Herb Turner Alliance Security
Bethany Cottrell Merrimack County Advocacy Center
Dr. Lynda Thistle Elliott Office of Homeless Education – DOE