Jones Dairy Farm Awards Latest Scholarships to Two Culinary Institute of America Students
Culinary Institute of America (CIA) students Eric Hollandsworth and Christian S. E. Hanrahan are the two most recent recipients of The Jones Dairy Farm Scholarship Fund at the CIA, said Philip Jones, sixth-generation president of Jones Dairy Farm and a professionally trained chef.
Established in May 2006, the Jones Dairy Farm Scholarship Fund supports three scholarships each year. CIA juniors and seniors pursuing baccalaureate degrees in Culinary Arts Management can apply for the scholarship by submitting a short essay and original recipe using a Jones’ product. Awards are restricted to students with a demonstrated financial need and grade-point average of 3.0 or higher. More information about the program is available by visiting www.jonesdairyfarm.com.
Peoria, Ill., native Hollandsworth’s interest in the culinary arts started in high school, but the thought about making it a career blossomed in college. While attending Illinois Central College, he worked as a server in Chicago. There, he discovered that he loved the foodservice business and wanted to learn more. So after receiving his business-management degree, Hollandsworth applied to the CIA and has never looked back.
Hollandsworth |
Since his arrival at the CIA, Hollandsworth has achieved academic success and demonstrated leadership qualities. During the ceremony at which he received his associate degree in occupational studies, Hollandsworth was awarded the prestigious Francis Roth Leadership Award and the Student Government Award. Now pursuing his B.P.S in culinary-arts management, Hollandsworth remains extremely active and has continued to shine, maintaining a 3.49 G.P.A. while also working as a resident assistant and a senior tour guide for the CIA’s Hospitality Office. He’s a contributor to the student newspaper “La Papillote,” a member of the CIA tennis team, current president of the Brew Club, former president of the student government and recently won the CIA’s 19th-annual chili cook off. |
Hanrahan |
Growing up the oldest of eight children in the Boston suburb of Newton, Hanrahan always loved preparing and serving food. He spent his summers at a Boy Scout camp where he happily served as a cook. Hanrahan’s cuisine was legendary and the camp staff gave him free rein as the menu planner and “mess hall commandant.” Throughout his high-school years, he also staged in a number of Boston-area restaurants including the Legal Seafood Restaurant chain. Hanrahan loved the heat and action of a professional kitchen, so applying to and attending The Culinary Institute of America was a natural next step for him. |
Hanrahan has taken well to the course work and is excelling both in and outside of the classroom. After receiving his A.O.S. in culinary arts in February 2009, he worked for a year as a teaching assistant in the school’s quantity food-production class. Hanrahan also did an externship at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, which he says helped him reaffirm why he chose culinary arts as his profession. In addition to his academic responsibilities, Hanrahan has devoted 25 hours a week working at the Thayer Hotel in West Point, N.Y. He is scheduled to complete his B.P.S in culinary-arts management this October.
Founded in 1889, Fort Atkinson, Wis.-based Jones Dairy Farm is a family-owned and operated company specializing in quality processed pork products including all natural breakfast sausage, ham, Canadian bacon, cherry hardwood and hickory-smoked bacon, liver sausage and scrapple. In honor of the scholarship endowment, the CIA renamed the Breakfast Cookery kitchen the “Jones Dairy Farm Kitchen,” where both breakfast- and lunch-cookery courses at the CIA are held.
“We salute both men’s hard work and dedication, and look forward to following their careers post graduation,” said Jones. “Like Jones Dairy Farm, the CIA is committed to the advancement of the foodservice industry by setting the ultimate standard of excellence. It’s this high level of achievement that excites us about awarding the Jones’ scholarships for years to come.”
Jones Dairy Farm makes products with the old-fashioned quality and flavor one would expect from a company that’s been around for more than 120 years. Still family owned and operated, Jones Dairy Farm is committed to the same fundamental principles today as when the company was founded six generations ago. Visit www.jonesdairyfarm.com for more information.