Each class offers a unique culinary learning experience from expert Chefs Carl Miller and Mark Reese. The classes will teach you to prepare and cook delicious meals, appetizers, and desserts perfect for lunch and dinner.
Learn more: sedonaschoolofculinary.com
Each guest can anticipate working with other attendees and the chef during the preparation process to learn some of the cuisine’s backgrounds and culinary techniques that the world’s highest-trained chefs use. And, of course, you get to enjoy your finished meal!
“As we know, food brings people together, from the cooking to the communal dining to the social interaction,” said Chef Carl Miller, Director of Culinary Arts at Yavapai College.
Examples of classes include Farm to Fork, Artisan Pizza and Wine, Middle Eastern, New England, Pasta & Sauce, Mediterranean, Artisan Bread Making, Pretzels and Beer Cheese, Gluten Free Baking, Occasional Cakes, and more.
Classes start on June 6 and are scheduled through July at the Yavapai College Sedona Center at 4215 Arts Village Drive, Sedona, Arizona 86336.
Classes range from 2-3 hours, and registration is required.
For more information on the Sedona School of Culinary and to register for classes, visit sedonaschoolofculinary.com
Yavapai Community College announced on November 8, 2022, that Dr. Irina Del Genio would become the next Verde Valley Dean at Yavapai Community College. She is leaving Elgin, Illinois Community College, where she has the position of Associate Dean of the Liberal, Visual, and Performing Arts Division.
Del Genio replaces Tina Redd who resigned as Verde Valley Dean earlier this year out of frustration with the Prescott based executives who control the Verde Campus and Sedona Center. The announcement was made by Prescott based Vice President Dr. Diane Ryan, Vice President of Academic Affairs. Most likely, Del Genio will report to and be supervised by Ryan.
Community College Prescott based president Dr. Diane Rhine did not make a public statement regarding the decision to hire Del Genio. Del Genio will start her position at the Verde Valley Campus on January 9, 2023. The College said she will provide “leadership and administrative oversight of the Verde Valley campus, Sedona Center, Career and Technical Education (CTE) Programs, and three academic departments college-wide.
Adding the academic college-wide departments to her work requirements ensures she will be away from the Verde Campus and Sedona Center once or twice each week, thus significantly diluting her work on the east side of Yavapai County.
Del Genio earned her Ph.D. in Political Philosophy and her master’s degrees in History and Political Science. She has lived lived, studied, and worked in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and most recently in the U.S. as a college instructor, grant manager, and college administrator. She is a frequent guest speaker on Russian American relations, asymmetrical warfare, the political impact of radical ideologies, and the global consequences of social unrest in contemporary societies.
She is described as an avid traveler and a healthy lifestyle advocate. She is a certified NIA (non-impact mind-body fitness) instructor. Del Genio enjoys sailing, skiing, dancing, and hiking in her free time with her partner George, her friends, and her family.
Yavapai Community College will hold an open house at its Sedona Center on Wednesday, September 28 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. The Center is located at 4215 Arts Village Drive, Sedona, Arizona 86336. The open house is designed for high school students, parents, working adults, and those interested in attending the Community College.
This is an opportunity to tour the facility and meet College faculty and OLLI ambassadors, all while sampling pastries prepared by the Culinary Arts students and faculty. Persons may also register for College credit and OLLI classes during the open house.
It was thought that there would be five adult face-to-face classes for college credit offered at the Sedona Center this semester. However, it turns out that there will be only the three face-to-face classes, all in culinary, when the semester opens. (See earlier Blog posting for more information.) The courses labeled Voice I and Voice II were changed from face-to-face to Weblive by the College.
Weblive classes are online and open to anyone but have specific times scheduled for classes. According to the College, a total of nine students are enrolled in these two classes (Voice I and Voice II).
There was a minor amount of confusion when the College’s registration web page listing Sedona Center classes initially indicated that no one had signed up for either voice course, when in fact nine students had enrolled. The College later explained that the classes were changed from face-to-face to Weblive. This accounted for the inaccurate zero registration number temporarily showing up in its registration portal. Here is the College’s response to the Blog query about these two classes and the initial showing of zero enrollment and change:
When a class is in the process of being cancelled it shows zero enrolled until those students have been contacted. Then the classes disappear from the registration site (if you search now for the Sedona Campus, you won’t see the Voice classes because they were moved to WebLive).
We always contact students if we are changing the modality of a class or cancelling the class. While we are in the process of contacting them, we drop the class capacity to zero so that students can’t register for a class that is being changed or cancelled. We let the students know about the change in modality and the new class number so that they can change their registration, or we let them know about other class options if the class is being cancelled. Then the class is cancelled and disappears from the registration site.
The minor mystery of zero enrollment has been solved. While the number of students in each class remains limited to 10, anyone anywhere may take the classes online but at specific scheduled times.
Yavapai Community College and the Sedona Oak Creek Unified School District executed an Intergovernmental that was approved 4-1 by the District Governing Board at its May 17 meeting. The agreement involves purchasing an unknown amount of equipment to be installed at the Sedona Performing Arts Center.
The contract reads that the “purpose of the IGA is to memorialize good faith efforts by Parties for Facility improvements and expanding accessibility to College in support of increasing events at Facility in support of the student experience and community outreach.” Third District Representative Paul Chevalier said he “totally agreed” with the purpose but strongly suggested that the agreement be rewritten with greater clarity.
The contract contains no dollar amount to be invested in facilities at the Sedona Performing Arts Center. The College Administration has not publicly announced any specific plans for classes at the facility or outlined to the Governing Board what classes it is contemplating offering there.
It was argued that rewriting the contract would delay the negotiations for months between the parties. Mr. Chevalier suggested a solution saying that a rewritten contract could be voted on via a special Board zoom meeting immediately after it was completed this summer. That idea was rejected.
Community College Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services, Dr. Clint Ewell, explained that “there has not been a dollar amount, or a specific plan identified.” He said that “we know that there are issues with a lack of equipment . . . that causes us when we are using their facility to have to bring stuff in . .. We want to work with the District to make improvements that will benefit not only the College but also benefit SPAC (Sedona Performing Arts Center) and their other users so that it is a more useful facility.” He emphasized that there were “ideas” at this point but nothing specific. He “guessed” that the Community College’s investment could be up to $100,000.
Chair Deb McCasland said that the IGA was “typical” of other IGA’s the Community College has signed.
You may view the IGA contract, which is attached to the Agenda of the May 17 meeting by clicking here.
You may view the eleven-minute Governing Board discussion about this IGA by clicking here.
East side citizens expressed a number of concerns about what the College is not doing while also expressing appreciation for what the College has begun to do on the east side of the County during the March 22, 2022 Board meeting. There appeared a concern among some that the future for the Sedona Center was not bright and that the Community College might consider closing it. What follows is a letter from a concerned Verde Valley resident, Ruth Wicks, a list of citizen concerns expressed during the March 22 Governing Board meeting in Sedona, and a collection of video clips from the March 22 meeting of citizens expressing their views on facilities, courses, the past treatment and future of the Sedona Center.
While discussing Community College underutilization of programs and the efficient use of space at the March 22 Governing Board meeting, Fifth District west-side representative Mitch Padilla reminded the Board that “we can consolidate. We can shutter a campus and reallocate dollars that would go to something that is simply not being utilized.”
He said he wasn’t calling for shuttering of campuses or anything like that although he has “personal opinions” on that. He said, however, that if the College is “spinning its wheels on maintenance and under-utilization on a program” that is not being used but is the primary function of a particular campus, “I don’t have problem shuttering it and using funds elsewhere.” (See video clip below.)
So, although not saying it directly, was he thinking about the Culinary Institute and the Sedona Center?
The comments immediately triggered a reaction from Third District Representative Paul Chevalier and the last time the Board considered shuttering the Sedona Center and the Chino Valley Center. He immediately responded and was adamant in his defense of keeping the Sedona Center and the Clarkdale Campus on the east side of Mingus Mountain from being shuttered. (See video tape clip). He commented that even the suggestion of closing campuses on the east side of Mingus Mountain would “cause a revolution over here.”
District one representative Ray Sigafoos, who voted in December 2013 for the Board to consider closing the Sedona Center and the Chino Valley Center, said he didn’t hear a “single word” about closing a campus or closing Clarkdale. Sigafoos speculated that as an example maybe the Board might look at the Chino Valley Center or Learning Centers at some time in the future. (See video clip below.)
Community College Vice President Clint Ewell closed out the conversation by saying the College has too much space and it needs to look at how it can better utilize that space. (See video clip below.)
The Board attorney cut off further discussion noting the issue was not on the agenda.
A video clip of a portion of the conversation among Board members on this issue appears below. You will be able to view a video of the entire Board meeting several weeks in the future when the video is included with the Governing Board minutes of the meeting.