Culinary arts teacher Kelly Walsh regularly shares her passion for cooking and nutrition with her students during culinary classes and the afterschool cooking club during the school year as well as during the schools ESY Program in the summer.

Mrs. Walsh first applied to work at the Calais School as a job coach, but her master’s degree in nutrition and teaching experience prompted Calais administrators to reach out to her about a culinary assistant teaching position. “I learned so much about prepping, cooking and planning during my first year,” she said, adding she had so much fun working with the students and planning recipes and meals for them to make. “This never felt like a job to me.”

And Mrs. Walsh does not let her master’s degree in nutrition go to waste. She always adds a healthy twist to her recipes, like baking mozzarella sticks recently instead of frying them.

One of the highlights of the school year for Mrs. Walsh and her students is the annual Thanksgiving feast. “We start early in the morning and prep for about two weeks, but it’s worth it,” she said. “We feed the whole school and many staff members and administrators volunteer to help serve.”

When the pandemic hit, Mrs. Walsh said she had to switch to virtual classes. “We started cooking online during ESY, and the kids loved it,” she said. “We had two classes and were all cooking simultaneously.”

During the 2020 school year, Mrs. Walsh instructs students in the 12+ program and offers the cooking club on Thursdays.

(This post was originally published on the Calais Foundation website here.)

You can help students achieve their goals by supporting the programs that give them the tools for success. To donate to The Calais Foundation, click the link here.

#mycalaisstory #thecalaisfoundation #thecalaisschool #exceedyourpossibilities #specialeducation

In celebration of The Calais School’s 50th anniversary, we are sharing personal stories from members of the Calais Community.