Agustina Olvera Garcia's ePortfolio

 

 

Good-bye’s can be tough. That’s why many people tend to say “it’s not a good-bye, it’s a see you later,” it only softens up the mood a bit more. I enjoyed making these points hopefully as much as you enjoyed reading them. I am quite shy in person at first, but I do have a big personality and I hope you got to see some of that here. I expect that you realize my love for pastry is no joke and I love and live for food and finding out new things every day. City Tech has really broadened my horizons and has made me think a lot more. I can see that the students in this program are all unique in their own way but we all share a common goal: the love for this industry, the passion, and determination. I am honored to be among these students and future stars. My time here has been great, and I don’t plan to stop blogging, because it can be nice to let people know more about you and products you have discovered. Until next time. 🙂

I always think what my future will be like, short term wise. Will I still have the same job as I do now? Or will I find another job and start my career by moving up by job to job? Or will i always stay “put” in something? Will I ever open up my own business? I hope I do, but life changes from time to time as I have come to notice. I have so many questions about the future but I can only hope that things will be in my lane most of time. I know I still have a long road ahead of me and I don’t know what the future holds but I hope it hold great opportunities. I still have some years for school, so I rather not stress myself out too much. For now, I rather focus on my grades and getting ahead.

 

I would love to have some regular clients in the future, perhaps some clients that are different from each other but still come together for my products. Some of those clients perhaps could be a business person like I hope to be one day. Another could be regular college students and also families. In a bakery, you only get a few regular customers, the ones that walk in for a coffee and a croissant, perhaps a sandwich every now and then. I would like to provide exceptional products that would make them come in for more than just that. A cannoli, a tart, a cake for special occasions. This would be my mission, to always be creative and come up with products that are unique to only myself. Just like when I walk around pastry shops and notice something unique from each one.    

 

 

 

What’s my plan? Essentially it would be to open up my own bakery in the future. If all goes well, I might decide to open up other businesses. My goal is to be happy, wherever I end up. Whether it be owning my own business or just to work in a well known bakery, I would just like to be happy. I started working at a relatively young age, just to help out with bills in the house and also to have some change in my pocket so I wouldn’t have to keep asking my parents for money. A little over a year ago, I started working at Lassen and Hennigs, my first “real job,” and I say real job just because my first job I worked with my mother, and it didn’t really feel like work to me because I was always with someone I knew. At this new job, I have learned a lot and have advanced myself. I  get to do what I love and not drag at the thought of working with long hours. I have enjoyed my time at my workplace and love doing pastries that make our customers happy.     

 

I started off my college life more differently than others. I mean, I was away from home, away from my mom and sister which I was always accustomed to, I was living alone, and learning to rediscover Brooklyn. I was eager and ready. I spent most of my time to myself and just doing my work hoping to pass and not to fail. I did this, and eventually in one of my classes, a professor was letting everyone know that the meeting for the Paris study/work program was coming up and handed interested students a paper. I was one of those students, I had heard of the program when I toured the school but hadn’t heard anything since then. I attended the meeting and was shocked at how many people showed up, I mean there weren’t enough seats for everyone. I remember Professor Hoffman talking about past experiences and requirements and saying “look around the room, this is your competition.” I remember feeling overwhelmed and thinking that it would be hard to get into the program since only a few are selected. Luckily enough, I was one of the few that was chosen to go on the trip. When I got the email, my heart sank and I did not believe it. I shed tears of happiness, and of course the first person I called was my mother to tell her that my dream had come true. She was happy for me of course, because she knew that Paris had always been my dream place to go as I discovered my love for pastry.

As time creeped up on me, the day to depart NYC was here. I say goodbye to my mother and sister as they dropped me off at the airport and I remember feeling nervous and happy as the plane departed. 8 long hours later and I arrived. I met up with my group and we headed to the hotel. I remember getting into my room and having the feeling of surrealism.  The next few days were magical. I got to see Paris, the tourist spots, the local spots, eat amazing food, cook and bake in a school, go out an enjoy the scenery and the people and the amazing food…everything was just amazing. I som  can still not believe it and I am always grateful to have been chosen and I also feel lucky to be able to accomplish something that was on my list for so long. My experience I will cherish forever. 

Since this fire of baking was lit inside of me and I knew it was not going anywhere else I knew I had to fulfill my passion. I knew that once I left my small town home I would be on to bigger and better things, but I had to start somewhere. The high school that I went to offered a program called BOCES, a technical school where you could go for half of the school day and get credits applied to your graduation while still earning a certificate for completion of the program. I remember my first time taking a tour of this school and looking at all the programs that were offered, one of them being Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management. I remember looking at all the students in their chef whites and being excited, thinking that would be next yearThankfully, I was accepted into the program and I was excited for my journey.

My 2-year journey with the program was amazing, I no longer felt like I didn’t belong with my peers, because the students that I met in the program had the same interests as me, we all had a love for food. This is where I found my “family.” I made some really great life-long friends from the program and at the end of the day I always looked forward to learning new culinary techniques and having been able to let my creative side roam and given the chance to come up with new recipes and trying them out with my classmates.

As senior year approached, I was hesitant on where to go to college, I always knew that I wanted to go to the Culinary Institute of America, I always called it my dream school but I knew it was out of reach for me, financially. However, I still applied just to see if i got accepted and to my favor, I did. I applied to other schools as well, City Tech being one of them. I remember coming to the school for a tour and requesting to see the Hospitality department. I was taken back in awe and amazed at all the hard working students in this particular department. I knew that this would be my new home.  

The first day of class is always sort of frighting for many. One may not know what to expect in the course, or not know if they will even reach their full potential. In this particular course I am taking this semester, Hospitality Marketing..,we as young professionals are given the chance to sell ourselves, to brand ourselves. To put ourselves out there in the Hospitality Workforce, to have people look at us and possibly think, “Hey! That person has what I’m looking for and even more, let me hire them!” Because at the end of the day, isn’t that what we would all like? To get something out of schooling? To be happy in a great paying job? How else should we accomplish that if we do not put ourselves out there?

 

 

Thinking back to where my passion started, I must say I was “born” for it. As a little girl, I was told that I loved playing with toy pots and pans and dishes and I especially loved “cooking” for my father. I would “cook,” and I say cook in quotation marks, because of course I was not cooking actual food (in my mind I was), but it was all make believe but my father always played along and called my food delicious. It wasn’t until I was about 13 years old that I really started to dive into my baking passion. At that time I only started making products that came from the box and followed the instructions. Simple things like cookies, cake, cupcakes, and brownies were my favorite things to make. After my family noticed that my passion was not going anywhere, they started to buy me products for baking. I remember receiving my first kitchen aid mixer for my 14th birthday and being the happiest girl on earth. Since then, I have never looked back.