Mr. Andrew Raffile has been interning with the Profettos in their culinary and baking classes since the start of semester two. He is a student at Johnson & Wales University who joined their competitive program after applying with his high school transcript, PSATs and SATs to help him stand out. He joined this internship as a requirement of his program. He is in his second semester of his senior year at J&W and EHHS was his second choice. His first choice was to be in a restaurant with his family, but that fell through. He’s worked with the Profettos before and he “thought it would be a great opportunity for him to learn how to teach.”

As an intern with the Profettos he is always helping out and working with the students. So, he takes little groups. Mr. Profetto works with a smaller group and smaller mixtures while Mr. Raffile works on the bigger productions, which are the baked goods that are sold in the Hive Cafe. The Hive Cafe is a student-run restaurant for teachers. Each student has a job to complete for lunch food service to teachers each day. Mr. Raffile fully supports all of the Profetto’s  classes to get as many internship hours as he can. He thinks their work in high school setting is “remarkable.”

The internship counts as his class credits this semester so he does not have to go back and forth to Rhode Island to J&W every day. He has one other class this semester, which he attends fully virtually.

Some of the things that have been a challenge so far this semester is trying to get his students to be active. He also has been learning to communicate effectively without being overbearing. “Everything we do has a purpose and we want students to become more engaged.” He knows that not everyone will do this professionally when they graduate, but “cooking is a necessity.”

Mr. R. has been cooking since he was 11 with his grandmother. His parents wanted him to enter a higher-paying trade, but his heart has always been with cooking.