Comet Café helps students gain real-world skills

GREENTOWN, Ind. (AP) - Zack Lowe has been serving people in his high school for the past few years, sharing brownies, coffee and smiles.

Since 2013, Lowe has been working with other students and his teacher, Mary Evans, in the Comet Café, which sells coffee, hot chocolate, tea and snacks to teachers and students at Eastern High School.

The Comet Café exists to give students in the life skills class valuable real-world experience that they can take with them after high school. While working in the café, Lowe, a senior at Eastern, takes orders, handles a cash register, makes change and interacts with customers.

Lowe helped advocate for the Comet Café in 2013 when the life skills class first brought the idea to the Eastern board of trustees. He gave a speech to the board and helped make the café a possibility - with a little financial help from the board to get it started.

The café is generally run primarily by the students, though some days it might just be one or two students while others are out of school for the day. The students are helped by Evans and other teachers as well as other students in the school.

Elizabeth Ailes, a senior who helps with the café, said she enjoys watching students, especially Lowe, interact with the people who stop at the café. She's been helping with the café for two years, and she and Lowe have formed a close bond. She helps him focus on the customer and make deliveries to classrooms around the school.

"This is super fun," she said.

The students in the life skills class do a number of things around the school. In addition to the café, they also wipe down tables in the cafeteria after lunch, fill the soda machines, and bake snacks to sell at the café.

Evans said all of the students involved in Comet Café enjoy doing it, and they get rewarded for their work. Once a semester, they take the money they've raised through the café and do something fun, like go to the movies or dinner. Occasionally, they'll also take their tip money to go get ice cream.

Evans said the café teaches the students valuable skills that they could use in jobs after high school.

"Zack is learning how to make change and he's doing it in a natural way," Evans said.

He said he likes working in the café because it allows him to greet people. He's proud to tell his customers that he's been working in the café for the last few years.

"I got it covered," he tells Evans. "I've done this since 2013. I know what I'm doing. I'm on fire. I'm so on fire."

___

Source: Kokomo Tribune, http://bit.ly/2odHNDk

___

Information from: Kokomo Tribune, http://www.ktonline.com