by: Cian Brun, City Sprouts Education Manager
Pictured: Andreya Cook, City Sprouts Education Intern via Intern Omaha Program
This June City Sprouts added a new member to our education team: introducing Andreya Cook! Andreya joins us through the Intern Omaha program of Avenue Scholars, where she will be a part of our team from June 2023 through May 2024.
Andreya has been participating in the Avenue Scholars program since her junior year. From the Avenue Scholars 2022 Annual Report:
"Avenue Scholars (AS) provides comprehensive, individualized support to help Omaha-area students of financial need identify, prepare for, and ultimately enter financially sustaining, high-demand careers requiring an associate degree or less. Support begins in the student’s junior year of high school and continues uninterrupted through postsecondary education/training and for six months following career entry."
One of Avenue Scholars' programs is Intern Omaha, whose purpose is, "to enable a next-generation workforce to begin lifelong careers in our city," (internomaha.org). This is where City Sprouts came into the picture.
In January, we participated in an Intern Omaha Career Expo, where we met with hundreds of students from the Greater Omaha Area to talk about our education internship. Prior to their arrival at the Career Expo, Avenue Scholars worked with the students to prepare professional resumes and a personal elevator pitch as they met with dozens of local businesses. Then, over the next few months, applications were open for students to apply to their desired internships. Though we had several applicants, we were impressed with Andreya's passion and eagerness to try new things, and we are so pleased to have her on board!
Andreya will be a senior at Omaha Northwest High School this upcoming school year, and she's got big plans for her life after high school. She aspires to be a chef or restaurant owner, featuring fresh, locally grown produce in her dishes. What originally interested Andreya in our internship was the cooking aspect. City Sprouts teaches a variety of cooking and preserving classes for ages 8 through adult, so there are plenty of opportunities to hone her own personal cooking skills and to teach others how to prepare food.
Another large aspect of the internship is planting and caring for the school gardens that City Sprouts maintains at both King Science and Lewis and Clark middle schools. She's excited to watch the gardens progress and grow the delicious foods that our students will use in recipes during the school year.
In her downtime, Andreya loves to play video games, hang out with friends, cook, bake, and try new things. Lately, she's been learning how to do her own nails and try new styles in her hair. She also hopes to travel the world.
We are so excited to learn and grow together with Andreya on our team over this next year. I hope this experience will have a positive impact on Andreya's life and will inspire her to achieve the biggest dreams she can dream!
Questions about internships and employment with City Sprouts?
Email info@omahasprouts.org 💚