Students test skills at Rotary dinner
Members and guests of Drouin Rotary Club recently held a dinner meeting in the “Food 4 Thought” Restaurant at the Drouin Secondary College, where they were served a meal by students undertaking the certificate II course in hospitality – kitchen operations.
The 13 students who participated are in their first year of the two-year course and are in years 10, 11 or 12 at the college, while some students join the course from other West Gippsland secondary schools.
The dinner was part of their schedule of assessment tasks for their course. The restaurant is a member of West Gippsland Trade Training Alliance.
This was Rotary’s eighth annual dinner at the college restaurant, and chairman of the meeting was club presiden Mervyn Deppeler who organised the evening with the assistance of his wife Jenny – a former teacher at the college.
Trainer Kevin Thorpe, who has been the guiding hand in all eight Rotary dinners, said that the students were involved from planning and preparation to serving at tables, and while the restaurant was open to the public on some Wednesday nights, other than in school holidays, the Rotary meeting gave the students valuable experience in serving a group menu.
Guest speaker at the meeting was an exstudent the college,Dr Karyn Richardson, daughter of Drouin residents Alex and Cheryl Richardson. Karyn is a post-doctorial researcher and general Psychologist at Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre, and is team co-ordinator of the therapeutic brain stimulation division, and oversees the clinical trials research program within this team.
Her research interests include developing evidence-based neuropsychological interventions and brain stimulation treatments for affective and cognitive changes following stroke. Karyn is in the process of transferring to the Epworth Centre for Innovation in mental Health.
In addressing the meeting, Karyn said that her interest in this area commenced when she was in years 11 and 12 at Drouin Secondary College studying psychology, and described her work in dealing with a range of mental health problems.
She traced examples of various cases of people who had been helped through this treatment.
When thanking and congratulating Karyn for her presentation, Mr Deppeler said that the club was pleased to have another ex-student of the college as guest speaker for the meeting as had been the case for the previous seven.
He remarked that Karyn was an excellent example of the calibre of ex-students of the college. He also thanked Kevin Thorpe and the students who participated in the evening, for their respective contributions to such a pleasant function.