Two new Family & Consumer Science teachers have become a part of the Nest this school year after the departure of teachers Lisa McDermott and Jodelle Peterson.
Candace Hammer is the new Child Development and Early Childhood Education (ECE) teacher, though she also teaches one period of Food and Nutrition. The other Food and Nutrition periods, as well as Culinary 1 & 2, are now being taught by Thomas Lundquist.
Hammer has been involved with Skyline’s ECE program before, having been the Nest Preschool aide during McDermott’s first year. Since then, Hammer has worked in other childcare settings, including ECE programs at East and Highland. After getting her teaching license, she spent three years working at Hillside Middle School before applying to the open FACS position at Skyline.
To Hammer, Skyline had a unique pull. “I loved the [ECE] program here at Skyline, because the students were the teachers,” she said. She explained that, in her experience, the other high school’s programs were “more handheld.” She said, “They play supportive roles, but they don’t jump in front of the students and lead them.”
Since Skyline students get to “take ownership” over teaching, Hammer thinks the program better prepares students to jump into childcare settings after high school. She added that she believes the program works this way largely due to “the caliber of a student here,” something that has “impressed” her in teaching even though she was already aware of Skyline’s “reputation for having students that were hardworking and capable.”
Lundquist also expressed how Skyline’s “reputation of being really academic” impressed him and impacted him to apply for Peterson’s old role. Prior to coming to Skyline, Lundquist was finishing his FACS Education degree from BYU with a one-year internship teaching at American Fork High School.
The transition between interning and working hasn’t been that difficult, Lundquist says. At American Fork, he was still put in charge of a full classroom; rather, one of the biggest changes has been that the space is more permanent. “The teacher was supposed to come back at the end of the year—that was kind of the deal with the internship,” he explained. Because of this, Lundquist didn’t get to make the space his own like he now can at Skyline. He said, “That’s probably the biggest transition that I’m making […] but getting systems in place where students are helping me clean stuff and keeping up maintenance with me is part of the fun.”
Working in a “brand new kitchen,” Lundquist reflected on how nice the space is. “It’s beautiful. They have a lot of really nice machines,” he said. “American Fork was a little bit outdated with their kitchen set-up; things were kind of falling apart.” Having worked in the food industry, Lundquist said that the kitchen is set up similarly to commercial ones. He hopes that in the future he may be able to teach students more about how commercial kitchens function, potentially even letting them sell or present their dishes in some way.
Lundquist explained how classes like this led him to his job today. “I started working in the foods lab [at BYU …] and just really enjoyed showing people how to cook,” he said. During one summer, he also had the opportunity to work as an executive chef at Elephant Cove in Alaska. Experiences like these were ultimately what helped him decide to switch his major from Mechanical Engineering to FACS Education.
Similarly, Hammer didn’t start out wanting to be a FACS educator. “I got my Bachelor’s degree in Communications at the University of Utah,” she explained. While that degree did end up serving her in enjoyable work with KUED and Deseret News, having kids ultimately led Hammer to becoming a preschool aide and getting her FACS teaching certification.
Both teachers aim to help students learn valuable FACS skills in a supportive space. Hammer expressed, “I want [students] to feel like they have value and are able to add to the academic environment.” After all, at the end of the day, FACS (and CTE) classes are all about developing skills, not starting out with them. Lundquist said, “You’re gonna learn skills in CTE classes that’ll carry you on for a very, very long time. So, come and cook, and I’m happy to have you.”
