Photo: Jordan Scott-Gleason
Jordan Scott-Geason, who loves baking chocolate chip cookies and key lime cheesecake, learned her baking skills in a six-month intensive training program at Sunflower Bakery in Rockville, Maryland. The bakery, a non-profit social enterprise that gives students real world job skills and then helps them find jobs, was founded by women who wanted to create skill-based, on-the-job training for adults with learning differences. About 50 students a year graduate from their six-month intensive training programs in pastry arts and hospitality training. The key, they say, is that many people with special needs thrive on structure "and recipes don’t change." Graduates work at bakeries and grocery stores, pet stores and amusement parks. “It's been amazing to see the transformation of our students," says executive director Jody Tick. "You see how people blossom, how they become more independent, their self-esteem increases. That is just an amazing thing to see.”
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