Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Three culinary students are enrolled in a unique paid, apprenticeship program through state agencies and a local non-profit.

The Torch 180 was founded as a culinary training program for young adults with disabilities. Organizers secured and remodeled the old Fowlerville Library to serve as a training center, restaurant and home base.

Three students in the culinary training program - Blake Clay, Shaun Gillespie, and Vikram Durci - are now officially enrolled in an apprenticeship program for professional cook through the U.S Department of Labor, sponsored by the Michigan Career Technical Institute or MCTI.

A special ceremony and apprenticeship signing event was held last Thursday and was full of nothing but laughter and smiles.

Gillespie told WHMI he had no words to express how he feels and it’s more than he could have ever dreamed of or imagined – considering everything he’s gone through in life from dealing with a lot of abuse from his biological parents, losing oved ones and going through feelings of being alone and fighting constant emotions. To be here now and doing this, Gillespie said it’s just indescribable and something he never thought he would do.

Gillespie wants to get into baking, saying he always loved to bake growing up with his grandma. He noted those in the program can move at their own pace and added that it also teaches important life skills outside of the kitchen such as how to budget and be punctual.

MCTI Deputy Director Brian Smith says their main campus is in Plainwell but they’ve have partnered with Torch 180 for about eight years now, first in Brighton and now Fowlerville. He said they partnered with them on curriculum right from the beginning. Smith told WHMI MCTI trains people with disabilities for competitive employment and now, they have entered a new dimension to bring them into apprenticeships.

Smith said the students are currently engaged in a program that has work processes designed and 80% of their work is on-the-job learning. He says related technical instruction is also defined, which is 20%. Smith says the students are hired by Torch 180 so they’re employed and getting a paycheck, all while learning the skills of a professional cook.

Not everyone is selected for the program. Smith says they do one term of training at Torch 180 to see if they would be a good fit because an apprentice is a long-term commitment. It’s about a two-year program that’s competency based so they can move slower or faster but at the end, Smith says they’ll have all the skills in the kitchen of a cook and the theoretical technical instruction attached to it.

Smith said it’s the old classic “have a mentor in the kitchen” to teach them the skills live and they get a paycheck while their learning so they’re not necessarily creating debt from tuition but actually “earning and learning”.

During the well-attended event, Torch 180 Founder Rhonda Callahan shared various stories about the three students and their individual journeys on the way to being selected for the apprenticeship program. She said she’s very proud of the students and how far they’ve come, and it feels “utterly surreal” to see everything that has been happening.

The students were also surprised during the event and presented with certificates of special recognition from Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin’s Office.