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. 
