Mount Pleasant Magazine July/August 2019

www.CharlestonsPrivateSchools.com | www.CharlestonSchoolDirectory.com | www.ed.sc.gov INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS CISD 175 K enton Kelley never in his wildest dreams thought he could work in a fancy . restaurant like Halls Chophouse in the swanky corridor of Upper King Street in downtown Charleston. After his father was killed at age 5, he grew up in a single-parent home in North Charleston. In 2014, during his sophomore year at R.B. Stall High School, an assistant principal stopped him in the hallway and told him to report to the auditorium for a presentation. Little did Kelley know, that moment would change his life. Presenting in the auditorium that day was Mickey Bakst, general manager of Charleston Grill at the prestigious Belmond Charleston Place. He was talking about his new program, Teach the Need. And what is that “need?” It’s employees for hospitality jobs in Charleston. With the boom in tourism stemming from the many accolades our great city has received, staffers for all the restaurants and hotels has indeed proven to be a “need.” At the presentation, Bakst announced, “Who wants to make $600 in two weeks?” That peaked Kelley’s interest, and, instead of thinking this was just another boring presentation that his high school assistant principal was forcing him to attend, suddenly, he was interested. Teach the Need was an idea that came to the mind of Bakst in 2014 because he saw a real problem with finding good staff for the many wonderful restaurants and hotels in the Charleston area. Bakst had also spoken to Michael Miller, a school board member at that time, about how Teach theNeed… FOR HOSPITALITY EMPLOYEES BY THERESA STRATFORD many high school seniors do not go to college but instead join the local workforce after they graduate. They knew people were out there who were willing and ready to work. Bakst decided to seek them out on his own, rather than waiting on them to apply. He began his job in the restaurant business as a teenager, so he decided to present his craft to local high schools and hopefully recruit great staff that way. Teach the Need is an eight-week program that meets on Saturdays at Trident Technical College. Bakst has different speakers come for each two-hour session. The last class is their graduation at the Belmond Charleston Place, where they eat a fine-dining meal at Charleston Grill and tour the hotel. “It is good for the kids to see all the different positions available to work, so we show them the marketing department, concierge, accounting, the spa, the kitchen and hotel positions, like front desk,” he said. “I don’t want them to think they can’t work the front of the house because they might be intimated by those positions.” Some of the lessons they learn during the program are how to shake hands, how to speak properly and skills Photos courtesy of Mickey Bakst.