Student Success Stories: Breanna
At Tri-County Jobs for Ohio’s Graduates (JOG) we strive to try to help youth to achieve their goals, both educational and career-oriented. In the case of Breanna, she came to us with strong career and educational aspirations.
Breanna came to JOG with dreams of becoming a chef and to start her own business. Her career specialist, Monique Arocho, has stepped in to help her along the way and helped her work toward this goal, starting helping her acquire her GED in one year at just 17 years old in early 2021! When reflecting on Breanna’s successes, Monique explained, “She is the definition of success because she beat all the odds.”
To explore her options to pursue a culinary career, Breanna met with local chefs and business owners, alongside Monique, to discuss how they made it where they are and how to get there herself. She also looked into furthering her education through formal culinary school. After weighing her options, she believed that be best course of action is to start at an entry-level position and work her way up. Breanna began this new journey by gaining fundamental skills at her first job at Wendy’s. Going forward from there, she began working at Applebee’s. Over the span of her time in culinary employment, she learned skills such as speed (with accuracy), kitchen etiquette, and even gained professional certifications. In December of 2022 and January of 2023, Breanna was awarded the honor of being the youngest employee of the month ever at her Applebee’s!
Since beginning her journey with Applebee’s, she has earned her chef’s coat and has been promoted to line cook and trainer. She is now getting ready for her next big steps in life by moving into her first an apartment. When talking about how far she has come, Breanna said she had “purchased a bed and all necessary kitchen items. After all, what else does a chef need?”
Stories like Breanna’s cannot happen without great staff from the JOG program and our sponsors to offer guidance and support. Our out-of-school (OOS) staff works hard to make sure that students like Breanna are able to have a solid structure to help them recognize their goals, achieve steps along the way, and ultimately make their dreams a reality.
We are so proud of Breanna and her path she has taken to achieve her dreams. We are all excited to see her name in lights on a future restaurant of her own!
To learn more about our out-of-school programming, please click here to read more on the JOG website.
