Are you a New Mexico restaurateur or hospitality professional looking to get involved in the community? Then mentorship through New Mexico ProStart may be right for you! Local ProStart schools around the state are looking for industry professionals to act as mentors to culinary students. These schools are local to your community due to there being 36 different programs around the state.
What is Mentorship?
A ProStart Mentorship, unlike apprenticeship, is an opportunity for a hospitality professional to donate their time to help local ProStart students learn real-world applications of their cooking and management skills. During preparation for the New Mexico ProStart Invitational, mentors are asked to help students develop menus for the culinary arts competition, and develop restaurant concepts for the management competition.
How Much Time Does it Take?
Being a mentor doesn’t necessarily mean a huge time commitment! How much time you dedicate to your mentees is completely up to you. There are many options on what you can do including teaching a one-hour class, giving a site tour of your restaurant’s kitchen, or assisting with menu design for their ProStart competition. If you would like to be more involved, you can sponsor a team for the ProStart Invitational (tax deductible) or act as a judge at the ProStart Invitational.
Check Out All the Ways You Can Get Involved!
- Offer tours of your restaurant
- Be a guest speaker in the ProStart high schools
- Provide a ProStart student scholarship in your restaurant’s name.
- Chef Demo or Management presentation for a ProStart school classroom
- Mentor a ProStart Culinary or Management competition team
- Sponsor a ProStart student/team for the State Competition ($250)
- Sponsor the Awards Ceremony for the State Competition ($500)
- Sponsor a ProStart student/team for the National Culinary Competition ($500/student)
Contact Brianna Dennis at Certification@nmrestaurants.org to sign up to be a mentor!
The Hospitality Industry Education Foundation (HIEF) is dedicated to implementing a series of approved courses of instruction or participating and contributing to existing educational programs for the education of persons who are interested in pursuing a career in the restaurant industry. This is accomplished through the administration of the ProStart program in New Mexico.
