Culinary Arts

Dressed in her chef's whites, Celestine Hartfield walked through the tiny kitchen on Germantown Avenue as though she owned it. She briefly watched a fellow worker chop vegetables, gave a quick stir to a saucepan on the stove, and moved a sagging tray to a walk-in freezer. Hartfield, 43, is a former convict, a single mother and homeless. But at work yesterday, she always seemed to wear a small smile, as though she knew better days were ahead. And her instructors at the Delaware Valley Community Kitchen are sure they are. Next week, Hartfield and her classmates will graduate from a three-month training program that taught them the ins and outs of a kitchen as well as how to get a job and keep it. Hartfield, one of the stars of the current crop, is bound to succeed, her instructors said.

Philadelphia's focus on food and the hospitality industry goes beyond wooing hometown customers and tourists. Training service providers has become just as important. To that end, Drexel University has expanded its hospitality management program to offer culinary arts as a fully accredited, four-year degree program. It also has drafted a team of prominent chefs and restaurant people, among them such prominent foodies as "Iron Chef" Masaharu Morimoto, South Philadelphia macrobiotics diva Christina Pirello, author-food historian William Woys Weaver, and master chef Georges Perrier of Le Bec-Fin, elevating them from the food trenches to the role of adjunct professor.

Two dozen area residents have enrolled in an automotive technician training program that started last month at Gloucester County College. The two-year Ford ASSET (Automotive Student Service Educational Training) program, an undertaking of the community college, the Gloucester County Institute of Technology, the Ford Motor Co., and Ford, Lincoln and Mercury dealerships in the region, is divided into 10-week modules. In the academic-diagnostic module, students spend half their day at GCIT working on Ford vehicles and the other half at the community college, where they take courses to earn an associate's degree.

Burlington County College and Virtua-Memorial Hospital Burlington County have started a joint venture to address the critical need for nurses. Under the partnership, Virtua will give scholarships, internships and stipends to students in the college's nursing program. The students will work at Virtua Health's hospital in Mount Holly. Under a pilot program, Jennifer Latham of Columbus will receive a $10,000 grant for nursing studies at the community college. She will also work part time at the Mount Holly hospital and receive full health benefits.

Camden County College is holding its first summer school for teachers. All but one of the tuition-free workshops, which provide 15 hours of professional development required of all state-certified teachers, will be held at the Blackwood campus. Aboard Our Battleship, a history of the USS New Jersey, will employ the battleship as both site and subject. Subjects that will be taught in July include What Is Math, Really?, which will explore math in relation to reason, certainty, passion and other human characteristics - 6 to 9 p.m., July 8-11; Exploring Ancient Egyptian History, which will cover topics such as women's roles, language and literature - 6 to 9 p.m., July 8, 15, 22 and 29; Murders That Changed the Course of History, including the assassination of Abraham Lincoln - 9 a.m. to noon, July 15-18; Sinking of the Titanic, which will investigate the ship's history before, during and after April 15, 1912 - 6 to 9 p.m., July 10, 17, 24 and 31; and Aboard Our Battleship, 6 to 9 p.m., July 8, 15, 22 and 29. For more information, call 856-227-7200, Ext. 4432.

Fourteen writers, editors and agents will be a part of Rutgers-Camden's 16th annual summer writers' conference, which begins Thursday. The conference, which runs through July 1, includes daily workshops and free readings each night. Advance registration is required for the workshops but not for the readings. The conference can be taken for undergraduate or graduate credit. Participating in the event will be J.T. Barbarese, Tony Hoagland, Phillis Levin, Gerald Stern, Julianna Baggott, Jane Bernstein, Jonathan Dee, Mat Johnson, Dani Shapiro, Lisa Zeidner, Lise Funderburg, Kathleen Volk Miller, Marion Wrenn and Denise Shannon.

The women's studies program at Rider University has a new name: gender studies. Women's studies was first introduced on the Lawrenceville campus in 1979. The name change was prompted by students, current work in the field, and the evolution of courses, said Judith Johnston, program director. "Scholarship in the field has begun to examine masculinity and gender bias," Johnston said. The American Chemical Society has presented Rider's student chapter with an honorable mention for its activities during the 2000-01 academic year.

Under a partnership involving Atlantic City and the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, the city's 98-year-old Carnegie Library will be restored and leased to Richard Stockton College. The Pomona-based college, which has roots in Atlantic City, hopes to use the building for classes, most likely in its hospitality, health-care and business programs, beginning in September 2003, said Tim Kelly, a Stockton spokesman. The building will also house the college's continuing professional education program and representatives from the college's admissions office.

Delaware Valley College in Doylestown and the neighboring Middle Bucks Institute of Technology in Jamison have joined forces to establish the Delaware Valley Culinary Institute. The postsecondary culinary arts program will begin next month. Students can earn a certificate or an associate degree in culinary arts and technology. The courses can be applied to the college's bachelor of science degrees in food service management and in food science and management. "This provides an intermediate step," said Neil Vincent, DelVal's vice president for academic affairs.

John S. Beckerman has been named associate dean for academic affairs at the Rutgers University School of Law at Camden. He will oversee curriculum development at the law school, which enrolls 762 students. Previously, Beckerman practiced law in New York and taught at the University of Michigan Law School, the Yale Law School, and the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York. These Camden County residents have been cited for academic achievement by Rutgers-Camden: Christopher Hannock of Audubon; Jason Nark of Bellmawr; Robert D. Thompson 3d of Blackwood; Jean Adams, Vina Le, Dorian Mendez-Vaz and Jessica Sanchez, all of Camden; Lynda Hitchman, Violeta Katsikis, Gem Pruna, Patricia Seay and Eric Zeplin, all of Cherry Hill; Curtis Saal of Clementon; Roger Dion and James Wilking, both of Collingswood; Lisa Nikolidakis of Erial; Susan Ekimoglou, Keith Gorman and Lisa Martz of Gloucester City.