Families pass down all sorts of things, from kitchen recipes to career recommendations. Texas native Angel Leija got both from her family.
Angel’s mother got her involved in the kitchen from a young age, but it was when she started selling breakfast tacos to her fellow high school students and was racking up dozens of pre-orders per day that she truly realized she was good at cooking—and that she could make money doing it. So, a dream was born.
“I wanted to do something that came naturally to me,” she said. “I wanted to be able to enjoy myself while also making money and helping provide for my family.”
But Angel soon learned that culinary school and regular colleges were expensive, and she was hesitant about going into debt. Angel started looking for kitchen jobs instead, but most of them wanted her to have experience or education. That’s when her grandfather told her of a cousin who had gone to Job Corps for free career training.
Angel enrolled at North Texas Job Corps Center a few hours from her hometown of Bryan and joined the Culinary Arts training program. While she was shy and slow to open up in a new environment at first, she was eager to learn. Her classes started her off with the basics every culinary student needs, including mastering her mother sauces and knife skills. Thanks to her experience at home, she quickly became a standout student and helped teach others. Her instructor even had Angel write down her recipe for tomato sauce to keep using in the class.
Then she was invited to advanced training at Treasure Island Job Corps Center in San Francisco, Calif. Before she went, though, she had to prove her practical skills and write an essay about why she wanted to go. She had plenty to write about.
“I wanted to explore something new, and San Francisco would have all sorts of new food styles that I would never get to experience down here [in Texas],” Angel said. “That motivated me because I love learning new foods and how to cook them, so I can show others.”
Angel says one of her favorite parts of advanced training was getting to meet other students from across the country—and getting to learn even more new skills. From taking apart an entire salmon to front-of-house service, to sugar and chocolate work, her training taught her everything she would need to know to succeed in the culinary industry.
“It was honestly amazing to learn all sorts of new things that I never thought I’d get the chance to learn how to do,” she said. Angel didn’t forget her roots, though, and even showed her instructors how to make Southern staples like chicken and dumplings.
Since graduating in 2021, Angel has returned to Bryan, Texas, and now works as an assistant pastry chef at Miramont Country Club. She’s saving up for her own apartment and hopes to open a catering company with her mom in the future. For now, though, she’s loving her job at the country club.
“I have a lot more opportunities than I did before,” she said. “After Job Corps, I’ve gotten so many job offers since I got back home that I’ve been able to pick and choose where I want to work.”
Apart from the better job prospects, Angel says what she appreciates most about her time at Job Corps is how she was able to come out her shell—and even others have noticed.
“[At Job Corps], you find yourself improving in ways that you don’t even notice,” she said. “Eventually, once you return home, everyone you knew before you went to Job Corps starts to notice that you’re different than you were before.”
The skills and confidence Angel gained at Job Corps turned out to be the not-so-secret ingredients to her success.
Graduated from Job Corps in: 2021 Employer: Assistant Pastry Chef, Miramont Country Club; Bryan, Texas Hometown: Bryan, Texas Phone: 979-402-5977 Submitted by: Hannah Purdy Notes:
Source: Susan Ber, Ber.Susan@jobcorps.org