By Janet Cruz

Every week some lucky teachers at Lake Havasu High School receive coffee or tea delivered by students enrolled in the STC program.

“I love when I see the students come by. They just make my day,” said Lake Havasu High School teacher Bridget Hagest.

The STC program at Lake Havasu High School, which stands for Student Transition Center, is designed to prepare juniors, seniors and super seniors of different abilities learn vocational skills they need to transition into an independent life after high school.

“Our super seniors are students who also stay in the public school system until the age of 21 and that’s when they would age out of special services. Typically, our students graduate on the four-year plan, but some of their parents decide that they may need another year of vocational training skills in the program,” said Special Education STC teacher Chiara Inglese.

Priscilla Garay assists Joshua Ketterman with his coffee in their Life Skills class at LHHS. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Students of different abilities enrolled in the Life skills course learn how to prepare for a job, by interacting with customers, when they deliver their coffee and tea creations to teachers on campus.

The program includes a small business on campus called the Knights Café, where students prepare and serve coffee, teas and blended daydream frozen hot chocolates to the staff and teachers.

“We sell Mondays to Friday,” Inglese said. On Thursday, the students bake and cook preparing snacks to sell during their Friday deliveries.

“Every morning I get a green tea or an iced green tea,” said Special Education Resource teacher and department chair Erynn Oblak. “I think this is great scheduling practice to prepare kids to stick to a schedule like they would at a job setting every morning.”

Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Life skills courses help empower students live independently in the long term. In order to do that, students also learn all aspects of working in a coffee shop from how to control inventory or how to replenish supplies and items involved in the business.

“Students learn how to create a grocery list. So we do go to Smiths to find items,” Inglese said. “We’re teaching those independent living skills which also includes creating a budget.” Students also learn to check inventory control,

But their work doesn’t stop there. Students get work experience  at Prestige Assisted Living facility.  They learn dinning room skills and other skills that would be necessary to work as a patient care technician or in some kind of medical facility.

“We work with the dining room staff to help clear tables there and then reset them, filling the sugars and the salt and pepper shaker sanitizing menus, setting up and rolling silverware. All of these skills are applicable to maybe a future job,” Inglese said.

After their Friday deliveries, the students volunteer their time at the Lake Havasu Community Food Bank and several other community organizations.

“It’s super fun. We do warehouse stocking, We take all the donated items and put them in bags that the clients come and pick up. The kids do a lot of work. We fill up huge boxes every Friday with the bags we put together,” Ingelse said.

“This class is very important because they learn job skills. And I think it’s just also practice for them to get prepared as if they were in a job setting,” said Oblak.

For more information on this program, or Lake Havasu High School, visit the school district website https://www.havasu.k12.az.us/

Jonathan Gomez delivers tea to Parapro Christina Shoemaker-Fisher at LHHS Thursday morning. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Bailey Gautsche prepares coffee in Mrs. Ingelses’s Life Skills class. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Jonathan Gomez prepares tea for a teacher in Mrs. Inglese’s Life Skills class. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Joel Ponce and Mason Kollars prepare coffee for teachers in his Life Skills class. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Jonathan Gomez, Priscilla Garay, Joshua Ketterman, and Joel Ponce prepare coffee for teachers in their Life Skills class. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Sienna Danielson makes cupcakes during her Life Skills class. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Teachers’ coffee orders are ready for students to make each day. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Joel Ponce delivers coffee to teacher Ali Porosky Thursday morning. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Life Skills students deliver coffee to their teachers at LHHS. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Mario Rinaldi and Bailey Gautsche make cupcakes during their Life Skills class at LHHS. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

LHHS students deliver coffee to teacher Bridget Hagest Thursday morning. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

LHHS students deliver coffee to teacher Jason Fallis Thursday morning. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Students learn how to make cupcakes in Mrs. Ingleses class. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Mrs. Ingleses points to the spots on her pants that was created from cake batter being accidently splattered on her by the students. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

Jillian Danielson/RiverScene