For Amy Glaze, fine cuisine is more than a pleasure. It’s a teaching tool.

This spring, Glaze teamed up with Puente to create Pescadero’s first after-school cooking class. For four weeks, a lucky group of Pescadero Middle School students tried out gourmet recipes under the tutelage of a master chef.

Glaze has been a cook at a three-star Michelin restaurant in Paris. She opened two San Francisco restaurants as chef de cuisine. But she says working with students and food is among the most rewarding experiences she’s had.

The tactile, rewarding immediacy of making a meal can make kids feel powerful, says Glaze.

“The thing I’ve learned about food is students who weren’t succeeding in other subjects were succeeding in cooking.  You have a real-life reason to succeed.”

That’s an important message for students who struggle with basic English.

Glaze and Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel conceived the cooking class as a way to enrich students’ lives with new skills while creating dishes sourced from local ingredients sold at the Pescadero Grown! farmers’ market.

Glaze showed the kids how to create dishes with flavors they’d never tasted before, like a Mexican dish with charro beans, chorizo, cactus salsa and handmade tortillas. They also made quiche with local spinach, and a fresh-picked strawberry layer cake.

Students were mesmerized watching Glaze chop vegetables so quickly her hand was a blur. Catalina Perez, a 12-yrear-old middle school student, says Glaze also taught them how to cut an onion without crying.

“I thought the class was really good. This town is really small so we never get a lot of people that come from big places.  To know that she was a chef in one of the biggest restaurants in the world was pretty exciting,” says Perez. In their last class, students spontaneously gave Glaze a round of applause.

The success of the pilot class has inspired Glaze to pursue a wider plan: to teach cooking skills to Pescadero High School students, and ultimately develop a little cooking school that will give the older students job training they can use when they graduate. If the local school district gets on board, students could also earn credit.

Someday, students will be able to sell their cooking creations at the farmers’ market.

“It’s something they can do for the community and add to their resume,” says Glaze.

Funding for the project was provided by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation.

To learn more, contact Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel at klobel@mypuente.org or (650) 879-1691 x144.

Growing up in Mexico, school was never an option for Gabriel Echeverria. When he moved to Pescadero, the 66-year-old found work at a local flower nursery where literacy wasn’t an issue.

But today, Echeverria is well on his way to earning his elementary school certificate through Plaza Comunitaria, a program Puente offers in concert with the National Institute for Adult Education in Mexico.

The literacy program, offered by a growing number of schools and organizations in the U.S., gives expatriates an opportunity to earn a “primaria” (elementary) or “secondaria” (middle school) degree.

Three years into his studies with a tutor at Puente, Echeverria can read and write in Spanish. He staffs La Sala, Puente’s biweekly social hour for local fieldworkers; his job is to keep track of attendance, and inventory the supplies Puente donates. Echeverria says his new arithmetic skills have come in handy there. And importantly, Echeverria is one of Puente’s longest serving board members.

Gabriel Echeverria, with his tutor, Cristina Salgado

“I first joined Plaza Comunitaria to learn more words, but what I’ve gained from studying is bigger,” says Echeverria. “I feel more confident and more motivated. I feel important, like now I know how to do things.”

Because they’re starting from scratch, it can take years for students to earn a certificate of literacy from Plaza Comunitaria. Once they learn to read, they learn other subjects by reading textbooks on health, social studies and Mexican history.

Puente is tutoring eight students right now. Ostensibly, the goal of Plaza Comunitaria is to help Mexicans prepare for a better future if they return to Mexico. But people do it for all kinds of reasons, says Rita Mancera, program director for Puente.

“People have completed the program, but it doesn’t mean they get a better job or they get a raise – it’s because they want to be a role model for their children. It’s something they want do for their own sake, for their own dreams,” she says.

Kassi Talbot, Learning Center Assistant for Puente, would like to see more students enroll. She says Plaza Comunitaria not only changes a person’s self-image, it challenges stereotypes about Mexican immigrants.

I think helping them get an education is one the best things we can do,” she says.

Funding for the Project is provided in part by the Silicon Valley Community Foundaton and IME Becas. For more information about Plaza Comunitaria or other Puente literacy programs or to make a donation, contact Kassi Talbot at ktalbot@mypuente.org or (650) 879-1691 x 138.

Gabriela Flores, along with Simone and Tallulah Froley of Half Moon Bay, and Bert, Square Peg’s beloved horse.

Gabriela Flores doesn’t consider herself a horse person. But she’s spending the summer with them. The 20-year-old is in awe of the horses she cares for at The Square Peg Foundation, a Half Moon Bay-based nonprofit that uses horsemanship to help kids with disabilities become emotionally stable and self-reliant.

Flores chose to do a summer internship at Square Peg because of her younger sister, a 15-year-old with Down syndrome. Flores wants to become a social worker, specializing in young clients with disabilities.

“The horses are a unique example of gentleness and power. They are so lovable and calm,” she says.

Hector Lopez

Flores is one of three young adults to benefit from Puente-sponsored internships this summer. The other two are Hector Lopez, who is interning at Symantec; and Omar Ortega, who is sharpening his accounting skills with At Your Nonprofit Service in Alameda, Calif.

Ortega, 18, helps file papers for the family-owned accounting business. A self-declared “money person,” Ortega is about to start college and is thinking about pursuing an accounting major. So far, he’s enjoying the work.

“I feel the responsibility of making sure that I satisfy the organizations that I’m working for – I kind of take that to heart. I always want to do the best that I can,” he says.

Omar Ortega

Summer internships aren’t like summer jobs. They’re not just about earning a wage. Ideally, they should reflect the interests or career goals of the young adults who sign up for Puente’s internship program, says Puente Executive Director Kerry Lobel.

“It’s not always easy to match the interest with the internship. This year we really worked with them to home their interests more carefully, and it’s been more rewarding for them.”

Take Ortega, who has had several jobs at Puente over the years. Puente staff members noticed his aptitude for numbers and assigned him the job of organizing Puente’s summer program at YMCA Camp Jones Gulch.

“Here, you get to do a lot of things, but you don’t always get to ‘own’ something,” says Lobel. “Omar did.”

Funding for the Project is provided, in part, by the TomKat Charitable Trust and San Mateo County’s Workforce Investment Board as well as individual donors. If you would like to offer an internship to south Coast youth, contact Rita Mancera at rmancera@mypuente.org, 650.879.1691 ext. 102.