Soon-to-Be Graduates Present 'Grand Pastry Buffet'

Published 05.09.2005

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Student News

Baking and pastry arts student Alicia Shaull of York County brings fresh cakes to replenish the pastry buffet.Baking and pastry arts students at Pennsylvania College of Technology displayed some of their final works before graduation during the Grand Pastry Buffet, held recently as part of the Penn College Foundation's fifth annual Scholarship Reception.

The May 6 event at Penn's Inn on the college's main campus brought together students who have received scholarships with those who have established scholarship funds at Penn College both individuals and representatives of businesses and organizations. The event offers recipients the chance to express their thanks to those who have assisted them with their college costs. Penn College makes nearly 400 scholarship awards annually.

The theme for this spring's Grand Pastry Buffet was "One for the Books," which complements the new Roger and Peggy Madigan Library currently under construction on campus. According to Monica J. Lanczak, instructor of food and hospitality management/culinary arts, the event incorporates all of the skills students have learned in the baking and pastry arts major.

It is planned by students in a pastry food show and buffet presentation concepts course, which teaches them to arrange such events as the Grand Pastry Buffet. The students chose the theme and menu for the buffet.

In their sugar art course, students created two centerpieces that follow the theme of one of their favorite books. In their pastry food show and buffet presentation concepts class, they also created a decorative chocolate piece. The bulk of the pastries and desserts for the Grand Pastry Buffet are made during the last two weeks of the semester in the baking and pastry arts application course.

"For the students, this is the end of two years of very hard work, and it's wonderful to see how their skills have grown over the last two years from when they entered the program," Lanczak said. "To witness this culmination of student learning is one of the great rewards of faculty instruction."

Students and their themes are: Kimberly A. Asbury, Port Matilda, "In the Night Kitchen" by Maurice Sendak; Keara E. Brussell, Damascus, "The Eyes of the Dragon" by Stephen King; Nathan A. Cartmell, Temple, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl; Michael L. Clinger, Northampton, "James and the Giant Peach" by Roald Dahl; Tacy L. DeGreen, Bloomsburg, "Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe;" Anice M. Edmunds, Milton, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom; Ashley N. Lloyd, Watsontown, "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald; Kira C. McGee, Elizabethtown, "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien; Courtney E. Norman, Shunk RR 3, "Series of Unfortunate Events" by Lemony Snicket; Marisa L. Seeders, Shippensburg, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" by J.K. Rowling; Alicia M. Shaull, Windsor, "Matilda" by Roald Dahl; and Melissa A. Sletner, Warwick, N.Y., "The Joy of Cooking" by Irma Starkloff Rombauer.

"The students have certainly risen to the occasion," Lanczak said. "This group has meshed and has worked so well together; they really are a great example of commitment to high standards of professionalism and excellence in hospitality."

Approximately 160 people, including scholarship representatives, student scholarship recipients, college administrators, and members of the college's board of directors and the Penn College Foundation board, attended the reception.

For more information about the academic programs offered by the School of Hospitality at Penn College, call (570) 327-4505, send e-mail or visit online .