Caption: (From left) Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management faculty Lampros Tzimas, Rose Deneen, instructors, and Mike O’Shea, assistant professor and department chair, are all smiles after earning initial accreditation from the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation’s Accrediting Commission.
Moraine Valley Community College has earned accreditation for its Applied Science in Culinary Arts degree program from the American Culinary Federation Education Foundation’s Accrediting Commission. Moraine Valley is the only community college in Cook County and one of only eight post-secondary institutions in Illinois to earn this recognition.
The process for accreditation is a self-review for improvement of academic quality of the culinary arts/baking and pastry programs that include a self-study and a peer review (site visit) of the program to verify documents submitted in the self-study, according to the American Culinary Federation. Programs that receive accreditation meet at least a minimum of standards and competencies set for faculty, curriculum and student services. One of the benefits of accreditation is that it creates public trust by ensuring established standards, accountability and credibility, a high level of professionalism, and current practices.
During the site visit, an administrator and two chefs from the American Culinary Federation observed the full-time Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management faculty, Mike O’Shea, assistant professor and program coordinator, and instructors Lampros Tzimas and Rose Deneen, interacting with students. They also checked out the kitchen facilities to ensure they met the requirements. The staff credit the architects who designed the kitchen for having the foresight to build it to ACF specifications. For example, they knew to include locker rooms for the students –a feature that may not have been considered otherwise.
“On the second day, I asked the site visitors how they felt about the visit, and they said ours was by far one of the best schools they have ever seen,” said Tzimas. “They told us they were having a really hard time finding something for us to improve upon. We were prepared, and we knew we stacked up.”
The bulk of the accreditation process was the self-study, which required collecting documentation, including the program’s syllabi and curriculum, facts about the program, faculty information, and support and resources from the school. The college also had to confirm the program complies with specific standards set by the commission.
The faculty credit Dr. Ryen Nagle, dean of Science, Business and Computer Technology at Moraine Valley, with coordinating the documentation effort and completing the five-inch-thick workbook that was submitted prior to the site visit.
“Dr. Nagle gathered all of the documents. He would tell us what he needed from who, and we would give it to him. He was a huge part of making this accreditation happen,” said Deneen.
The accreditation process really started over five years ago when the new kitchen was built in the Moraine Business and Conference Center as part of the 2006 referendum projects. Once the facilities were in place, staff needed to be hired and curriculum created for a growing program. Years later, the faculty’s work has paid off.
While a lot of work and time went into preparing for the accreditation, Moraine Valley students ultimately will benefit most from it. “The accreditation gives us credibility and ensures we are teaching students what they need to learn. They can put on their resume that they attended an accredited school, which distinguishes them when interviewing for jobs,” said O’Shea. “It’s really a validation of the hard work that went into building this program over many years, and we’re proud of that validation.”
For news media inquiries, call Jessica Crotty, College and Community Relations coordinator, at (708) 974-5281, or e-mail her at crotty@morainevalley.edu.
