Business, Baking and Building Futures
An after school program at Dove Academy is setting up students for success
When Tasha White founded Snooky Cookies to satisfy her son’s cravings for homemade chocolate chip cookies, she had no idea it would transform into a hands-on learning experience for students in Detroit.
Her undeniably delicious cookie business was founded in her 175 sq. ft. space with a gas oven, and quickly grew into a larger space when she saw an opportunity to start teaching private baking lessons.
The art of baking has been lost in this generation,” said Tasha. “My grandma loved baking and passed down her love and wisdom of baking to me. I had no idea so many people would be interested in learning how to bake.”
As the word started to spread, more and more churches, schools and organizations started to request her delicious treats, which evolved into the beginning of Snooky Cookie University.
We are teaching business, baking and building futures,” said Tasha. “We teach our bakers the bigger picture of baking from budgeting to purchase the items, to actually shopping to find the right items, to fractions and metrics, and then marketing their products to sell. At the same time, all of the students are in groups, so our classes are rooted in teamwork, conversations, and even a little conflict management.”
La’Derrick Winfield, an 8th-grade student at Dove Academy, is a current participant in Snooky Cookie University. He is enamored with the program so far and is looking forward to their Cookie Bake-Off event coming up.
It taught me about baking, leadership and even NFTs – I was surprised she even knew about that,” said La’Derrick. “This program has taught me a lot and I just want to say thank you.”
This program is just one of many included in Let’s Go Deeper, a program focused on building programs and support to improve the whole-child experience in schools in Detroit. Led by Dr. Clarence Price, a Community Partner at Dove, this program bridges school work with real-life opportunities, giving students and families the opportunity to thrive.
Watch the video here!