Nancy Dunlop stood in front of a group of high school students, showing them the final steps of making the “Irresistible Peanut Butter Cookie.”
“Once you’re done, then you say a prayer and hope that you did everything right,” Dunlop said. “But you will do everything right because you’re good listeners.”
After school on Wednesdays, the students gather in room 113 at Hillsdale High School for the culinary arts club Dunlop started last fall. Dunlop taught home economics classes at Hillsdale High School and Davis Middle School for 31 years before the high school was forced to cut her department in 2010 due to a lack of funding.
Dunlop retired, but her desire to teach remained. Retirement opened her eyes to how much she loved teaching when former students called her to say how much she meant to them.
“You never realize the impact you have on the kids until they come back to you or open up to you,” Dunlop said. “I feel I can still have that impact — socially, emotionally, intellectually, preparing them for the real world — even now. It’s very rewarding for me to know that I can impact young adults.”
Students in the club say they enjoy learning new skills from Dunlop.
“I love it. There’s so much to do, and you learn so much,” high school junior Tiffany Nowak said. “And the stuff that we cook just comes out amazing. She’s a great teacher.”
Freshman Selena Jimenez shared similar sentiments.
“It’s my favorite activity at school,” Jimenez said.
The idea for the group began a year after Dunlop retired when she started an after-school sewing club at the high school. Once a week, she walked by the large kitchens that were once her classroom — kitchens that had been remodeled only six years before to her specifications — and mourn their disuse.
“Last summer, I had a brainstorm, and I said, ‘Start a culinary arts club. Use those kitchens. Find the kids,’” she said.
After receiving the go-ahead from the school’s administration, Dunlop began collecting donations and advertising for the club.
Her church friends donated dish towels and kitchen utensils, and her brother, who works for Pioneer Sugar, donated all of the sugar the club uses.
Next, to spread the word about its new club, the school gave daily announcements using its public address system, and the high school’s business class created a brochure advertising it.
For funding, Dunlop went to the Hillsdale County Community Foundation, from which she received a grant to fill the kitchens with supplies. Once she found 10 students to participate, she worked with them to secure a youth grant from the foundation.
“It was really good for them. They had to really sit down and think,” Dunlop said. “I’d take notes, type it out, and bring it back to them. We had to have a leader, and they all had to sign it. So we ended up getting both grants.”
The club met during the lunch period from October through December. After the students’ winter break, it began meeting after school on Wednesdays for 30 minutes. For a few weeks, the students worked on perfecting the 5-inch round cookie — hopefully the club’s source of revenue, once the grant money dries up.
To keep the club on track, Dunlop sought advice from her long-time mentor, former Hillsdale High School principal, Doug Willer. He suggested that the club make items the business students could sell in the school’s coffee shop, The Study Cup, like the 5-inch cookies.
While Dunlop regrets that home economics, which includes basic cooking and sewing classes, courses on home planning and architecture, and early childhood development, has been cut from the Michigan high school curriculum, she’s glad to be back in the classroom.
“This is a dream come true for me to be able to have this privilege to be back in this gorgeous facility that the community has paid for,” Dunlop said.
