Our second annual State Invitational took place on Tuesday, March 7th THEARC.  Our two ProStart schools, Ballou High School and Roosevelt High School each formed a team to compete in the culinary competition.  The teams worked hard and prepared for the competition over a 3 month period with the help of their teachers, and Dan Traster, our ProStart mentor/coach.  The students showed up eager and ready to compete against each other.  Both teams brought their best skills, presented very well, and performed professionally and timely.  Our awesome group of judges, made up of RAMW’s restaurant operators and industry professionals, critiqued and judged each team in 8 different categories, scoring them on a scale of  1-10.  The Roosevelt team took the win, by a small margin.  

 

This event was a success thanks to our ProStart Educators, Students, and many great sponsors, including The Richard E. & Nancy P. Marriott Foundation, Ecolab, National Restaurant Association, Link Strategic Partners, and DC Central Kitchen.  

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The State Invitational is hosted by each ProStart state and serves to qualify a student team to represent their state at the National ProStart Invitational (NPSI), which will be held May 2-4, 2023 at the Washington Hilton.  Student teams from across the country will travel to DC to compete and showcase their skills.  

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For reference, ProStart is the nationally recognized high school training curriculum and program created by the National Restaurant Association. It is facilitated here in DC by RAMW’s Education Foundation in partnership with DCPS at Ballou High School (Ward 8), Roosevelt High School (Ward 5).