What’s the Secret Ingredient in This High School Culinary Arts Class?

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What’s the Secret Ingredient in This High School Culinary Arts Class?

2026-11-10 23:13 Last Updated At：23:20

LANCASTER, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 10, 2026--

The aroma of pumpkin pie, brownies and cheesecake is wafting through the industrial kitchen at a Learn4Life high school in Lancaster. Dressed in chef’s whites, culinary arts students are busy prepping the same desserts that earned them top awards at a recent county fair.

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Students enrolled in this career technical education (CTE) course earn industry certifications and learn both the art and the business of cooking, baking, catering and restaurant management – all while earning their high school diplomas. Equipped with these new skills, graduating students are well-prepared to qualify for further culinary education or even working in a kitchen right out of high school.

Kitchen experience teaches a host of important life skills.

“Our culinary arts students learn skills that are necessary to be successful in the workforce,” explained the Learn4Life teacher, Chef Tom Shibley. “They have to commit to being in class every day, on time and they learn how to plan, problem solve, and how to collaborate and work as a team.”

After a few weeks of formal classroom instruction covering kitchen and food safety, lessons are taught in the school’s industrial kitchen. This is where students get hands-on experience cooking global cuisine and learning best practices on everything from knife techniques to sharing a workspace. As part of the course’s capstone project, students are divided into teams, where they select a type of cuisine to design, execute and present a multi-course meal.

Student Jeremias, 15, who won a top award for his churro cheesecake, has gotten a lot out of the course.

“My favorite part was working with my team; creating all these amazing dishes and presenting at the end,” he said. “We showed each other what we did and shared the food that we made. I just really like being with my team and working with them on these dishes.”

This love of teamwork isn’t always shared by teens – in fact, studies show that 49 percent of young people prefer to work alone. 1 High social media usage and pandemic-driven isolation mean a large portion of Gen Z youth missed out on crucial in-person experiences during their formative years.

Even so, employers consistently seek out candidates with strong soft skills like teamwork, problem‑solving, communication, dependability and professionalism. These traits rank highest in surveys like National Association of Colleges and Employers’ (NACE) 2026 Job Outlook, where teamwork (85 percent), problem‑solving (82 percent) and communication (78 percent verbal, 72 percent written) topped employer priorities. 2

That’s why Shibley and other teachers at Learn4Life schools weave these skills into classes and CTE programs.

“So, while they’re having fun cooking or in other enjoyable elective classes, they’re learning to work well with others and build rapport,” he said. “And I let the students know that it’s okay to make a mistake, learn from it and move on.”

Learn4Life is a network of 90+ public charter high schools that offer personalized learning, flexible schedules and an array of job skills training programs. For more information, visit www.Learn4Life.org.

About Learn4Life

Learn4Life is a network of nonprofit public high schools that provide students personalized learning, career training and life skills. Each school is locally controlled, tuition free and gives students the flexibility and one-on-one attention they need to succeed. Serving more than 64,000 students through a year-round program, we help them prepare for a future beyond high school. For more information, please visit www.learn4life.org.

1Gen Z, Teamwork, and Workplace Dynamics

2NACE job outlook survey

US stocks drift lower after a discouraging update on inflation

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting lower Tuesday after a report showed inflation was worse across the country last month than economists expected.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2% and gave back some of its big rally from the day before. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 212 points, or 0.4%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.1% lower.

Pressure from the bond market undercut stocks following the discouraging report on inflation. People had to pay prices for groceries, electricity and other costs of living that were even higher last month than economists expected. That could push the Federal Reserve to hike its main interest rate at its next meeting in December and beyond.

Higher interest rates can help rein in inflation, but they do so by making it more expensive for everyone to borrow money and by slowing the overall economy. Higher rates also make investors less willing to pay high prices for stocks and other investments.

One Fed official even hinted the central bank may increase the federal funds rate by double the typical amount next month because of how high inflation has remained for years.

Speaking in London before the inflation report was released, Fed Gov. Christopher Waller said “a stronger policy move may be needed” if the report showed an important underlying measure of inflation rose by 0.3% from September.

In that case, he said the Fed should consider hiking the federal funds rate by half a percentage point rather than the typical quarter point. Moving by only the usual amount could “put our credibility at risk, a risk I am not eager to take.”

Shortly afterward, Tuesday’s inflation report showed that the underlying measure of inflation Waller was worried about was exactly 0.3%, the threshold he had set.

That sent yields jumping in the bond market as traders upped their forecasts for coming hikes to rates by the Fed.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped to 4.98% from 4.88% late Monday. That’s a notable move for the bond market, and the yield helps set where rates are for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses.

The 10-year Treasury yield had been dropping since early October, when it topped 5.30% as worries spiked about high inflation, higher interest rates, the U.S. government’s big debt and other concerns.

Tuesday’s jump in yields came even though oil prices fell again. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil sank 2.4% to $90.32. President Donald Trump said late Monday that the war in Iran, which sent oil prices much higher, “militarily is effectively over.”

Brent’s price has been falling from more than $112 at the start of the month amid uncertainty about what will happen with the war with Iran.

Jumps in Treasury yields push downward on prices for all kinds of stocks, and they typically most affect those seen as the most expensive. That’s keeping the focus on stocks tied to the artificial-intelligence boom, which soared to records in the frenzy around AI despite criticisms that they were in a bubble.

More recently, they’ve come under pressure on worries that Democratic victories in statehouses across the country last week could mean restrictions on further construction of AI data centers.

Nvidia fell 3.1% and was the heaviest weight on the S&P 500. The chip company has also been dealing with issues unrelated to the rest of the AI industry after its CEO, Jensen Huang, admitted to a relationship with a woman who, according to The New York Times, U.S. intelligence determined was gathering information for China.

Other stocks in the AI industry were mixed. GE Vernova, which is helping to power AI data centers, dropped 5.4%.

But Advanced Micro Devices rallied 5.5%. CoreWeave, a company that rents out access to AI chips to customers over the cloud, also held up better. It added 3.6%.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.

South Korea's Kospi jumped 4.4% for one of the world's biggest gains on strength for its two tech giants that have benefited from the AI boom, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

AP Writers Elaine Lai and Matt Ott contributed to this report.