Bridget Callahan

I went to college immediately after high school. I felt forced to go because that’s what everyone did. So I just picked one and went undecided. I just did some general ed classes. After I was there for a while, I realized that nothing really clicked for me. I decided I needed to start looking at something else and explore what really interested me.

One day, someone simply asked, “What do you like to do?” I said, “Cook!” That’s when it finally clicked that culinary was the career for me. So, I began to look for schools that offered culinary. That’s when I found Penn College.

I wanted to get the full college experience and be around people outside of my major, which isn’t the case with other colleges. So, I dug deeper and looked at Penn College because I knew they had many diverse majors. After I spoke with people from the College, the sense of comfort I got in their answers convinced me that I had to take a closer look.

Yes. I visited in March while I was still at the other school and then I came for an open house. When I came to look at the campus I was looking at the labs and everything really felt comfortable. After talking with the people here, I really felt like I wasn't just going to be a number. I felt like they actually cared even before I had applied. They cared about what I was doing and why I was visiting. They cared about me finding the right fit for the classes and what I was going to do with my life. Before I even visited I sent one of the admissions counselors probably 20 questions. He broke down everything in the email and answered every single question with bullet points. If he didn't know the answer, he told me who to contact. It just felt like they cared.

I was really impressed that I would get to be hands-on so quickly. I was also really impressed by the spaces, how big they were, and all the equipment they had. I loved how you got the experience of being in a kitchen right away so you would know if you liked it or not.

I think the most concerning thing for me was whether my credits would transfer over. However, I used the online transfer equivalency tool, which was nice because I was able to insert all my courses and make sure that they would transfer over. Actually, all of them did!

They push you to branch out and do things that you might not be comfortable with. During the service course, they make sure that you are in a management position so that you know what it would be like in a kitchen to do that and run the line for the night. They push you so that when you go out into the real world, you know what it is like.

Yes, in every way. Ever since I started here, the chefs made sure that they focus on you as a person. When I first came here I was very shy, and still am. But in the kitchen, you can't be like that all the time. That was one thing that the chefs made sure to focus on. They kind of pushed me out of my comfort zone so that I would be ready for the real world. In addition to that, just learning all the basics that you need to know for the kitchen. Penn College goes beyond and shows you more than that. They show you what it's like to be in a kitchen and stand in the kitchen and feel the heat and the pressure of what you're going to experience if you actually choose to do this as a career. So I think by the end of it, you know that this is what you want to do. You're not questioning it anymore. You're positive. This is what you want to do with your life.

The best advice would be just to go for it. I think there's a lot of nerves going into a different school, but I think you just have to go for it. If you come and you see the campus and you feel like it might be the right fit for you, I think you should just go for it because it probably is. If it's not, they'll help you. They'll guide you to where you need to go. The professors in all the majors care about you as a person and they want to see you succeed, whether that's in their major or doing something else. I think this is a really great school. It's a home. It's a family here. My best advice is to just go for it.