Brandon Park has had many opportunities few high school students receive; including multiple scholarship opportunities to schools like Monroe College in New York and Johnson and Wales in Colorado, winning two thousand dollars for a meal he prepared, and getting to see that meal served in the school cafeteria. 

“He has this huge sense of urgency…if he doesn’t know how to do something, he just pushes through and figures it out,” culinary teacher Angela Stutz says about Park. 

This is one of many reasons Park is one of the top seniors in Arizona who is part of an organization called Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP). This program prepares students looking for careers in the restaurant and hospitality industry for college and other job opportunities. He has the chance to win anywhere from a one thousand dollar scholarship to a full-ride to any participating/accepting school. 

“He has that natural ability… kids [in his fourth hour] will call him over and ask how to do something instead of asking me,” says Stutz. 

Park won a “feeding the future” award for making a lunch item that will be served in the cafeteria after spring break. This is the same creation that won him two thousand dollars and he did not just cook it, he also had to research all the dietary requirements of the school and price the item(s) in order to win. 

Stutz adds, “I’ve trained other students for this competition and sometimes they’re hesitant…but [Brandon] is just a natural and has no problem with any of it.”Parks passion for cooking continues to lead him to success and his teacher is confident he will thrive in whatever he does after high school.

DECA’s Lange wins award

The DECA program has been doing great things this year. The success of this program can be attributed to the talented students and their teacher, Mr. Lange who has been teaching the DECA program for eight years now. 

Lange won an award for Arizona DECA advisor of the year at DECA’s state conference.

Lange has a passion for teaching and helping students to learn and be successful. 

“I got into teaching in general because I had been my guest speaker,” Lange says. Guest speaking was Lange’s first career which helped him to realize he “loved helping kids,” and wanted to continue to make teaching his career. 

Lange seized the opportunity to begin teaching the DECA program at Perry after seeing potential from the students. “Perry is a great school and when the opportunity came I jumped on it basically,” Lange said. 

Since seizing this opportunity, Lange has been dedicated to helping the students succeed in any way that he can. He credits the students for anything the program is doing well. Even with the award he won, he said: “I mean it’s cool, but I take the kids’ accomplishments, That’s why I got into this,” 

DECA recently went to state conference where they got to learn from guest speakers and compete. Mr. Lange and the officers helped to get everyone ready for the competition by “My officers have already gone so… they know what to expect,” Lange said. 

 Due to the leadership of Mr. Lange and the students in DECA, the student body can expect a lot of accomplishments this year.