Maggie O'Mara enjoys sweet success in the Rocky Mountains
Practices were hard, but winning was sweet when Culinary Arts Tech Prep class of 2008 alumna Maggie O'Mara and her teammates at Johnson & Wales University in Denver scored a gold medal and first place in Colorado's American Culinary Federation Competition. For O'Mara, the win proved to be a testament to how Career & Tech's Culinary Arts program transformed her from a kid who skipped school to a focused, college-bound young adult.
After completing the Culinary Arts program as a high school junior and the Culinary Arts Tech Prep program as a senior, O'Mara went on to SUNY Delhi, entering with 18 college credits that she earned in culinary arts and hospitality at Career & Tech and in business courses at Guilderland High. She graduated from Delhi a semester early with an Associate of Arts in Culinary Arts.
This June, O'Mara will graduate from Johnson & Wales with a Bachelor of Science in Culinary Nutrition, but her educational plans don't end there. She'll continue for two more trimesters at the university so she can earn a second bachelor's degree in Food Service Management. After becoming a registered dietician, her ultimate career goal is to work as a personal chef or a nutritional chef for a professional sports team. Right now, she works as a cook at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill in Denver. When she isn't working, studying or practicing for ACF competitions, O'Mara likes to "hang out with my roommates and watch movies, but usually I end up falling asleep."
Reflecting back on her high school years, O'Mara credits Career & Tech for turning her from someone who cut class because she didn't like school into a focused student with clear college and career plans who "enjoyed coming to Culinary so much, I'd want to cut my other classes to be here all day!"
"If I hadn't gone to Career & Tech," O'Mara said, "I probably would not have gotten into culinary school after graduation. Career & Tech also helped me earn scholarships to pay for college and really helped me find my passion. (Because of Career & Tech) I was already doing what I liked to do in high school and learning about my options, while kids who didn't go to Career & Tech might not have been able to find what they wanted to do after graduation."
O'Mara and her teammates at Johnson & Wales continue on to regional competition in the spring in Reno, NV, so practice remains on O'Mara's busy schedule of full-time school and full-time work out in the Rocky Mountains.
Maggie O'Mara visited with her Culinary
Arts I teacher,
Chef Rother, in his classroom during her Thanksgiving
break.
Chef Dolan and Maggie
O'Mara visit in Cafe Anders
at Career & Tech during her Thanksgiving break.
