Sleepy Hollow Student Nets $19,000 in Culinary Scholarships

By Suzanne Davis

To say that Nicole Carmona is a hard worker is an understatement.

The Sleepy Hollow senior and second-year Culinary Arts student at the Southern Westchester BOCES Center for Career Services has literally been working overtime to balance academics (she’s an AP Honor student) and her training at BOCES with the after-school tutoring she gives middle school students, community service projects, and her dinner shift job at a Tarrytown restaurant – all while maintaining a 3.9 grade point average.

In the little spare time she has, Carmona has managed since September to apply for up to three scholarships a week to help fund the $36,000 a year tuition she’ll need to attend the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, N.Y., where she will begin a 38-month baking and pastry arts course in September. At the completion of the program, Carmona will earn a Bachelor of Professional Studies degree.

At the CIA, she’ll learn how to create hearth and specialty breads, desserts, pastry, pâtisserie and confections, as well as practice basic cooking methods, explore nutrition, menu development, food safety and cost control, and learn how to operate and manage a profitable baking and pastry business. The program also weaves in lessons on baking and pastry traditions from around the world, foreign languages, communication, psychology, ethics and business management. In her third year, Nicole will have an opportunity to do a paid six-month “externship” at a baking establishment in the United States or abroad.

With her high grades, intelligence and capability, Carmona could succeed in any career field she chooses, so it was natural when family members began to question her decision to become a baker.

“Since I was little,” she said, “I always enjoyed baking. And when I came to BOCES, I just fell in love with it.”

She credits her beloved godfather, Richard Nadal, who passed away in February, with encouraging her to stay true to herself and follow her dream. Nadal stepped in as a father figure to Carmona and her older sister Jennifer at an early age, and it was with him that Carmona developed her love of baking. The two would watch cooking shows together and then experiment in the kitchen.

“He wasn’t that good at it,” she said with a laugh, “but we had a lot of fun with my Easy Bake Oven and Betty Crocker.”

Once Carmona made up her mind to go to the CIA, she went to town to find ways to help pay for her education and lighten the financial load for her mother, who suffers from multiple-sclerosis.

Carmona began searching Sleepy Hollow High School’s bulletin board for scholarship application notices and applying for others she found on Fastweb, an online scholarship matching service.

With the help of a guidance counselor at Sleepy Hollow High who still is affiliated with her college sorority, Zeta Phi Beta, Carmona applied for and won a $2,000 ZPB scholarship after writing an essay about her godfather’s encouragement of her career aspirations.

She also received a $2,000 Abigail Kirsch scholarship through Westchester County’s Women’s Hall of Fame, for which BOCES English teacher Chris Kincart wrote a recommendation. Carmona, Kincart said, “is a highly motivated individual who will succeed in attaining her goals.”

Kirsch, founder of Abigail Kirsch Catering Relationships, presented the Culinary Caring Award to Carmona at a luncheon in April.

On the heels of these came two larger scholarships: a $5,000 award from Verizon, where Carmona’s mother works. The award is renewable for three years if Carmona maintains a grade point average of 2.0 or higher. She also received two awards from the CIA --- a High Impact Leadership Scholarship valued at $10,000 to spread out over the duration of the course and a work-study award of $2,000 per semester so she can work on campus.

Carmona is still waiting to hear about some other scholarships and is keeping her fingers crossed. Among the most interesting scholarships she applied for is the $10,000 Dr. Seuss “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” award. Applying the themes of the book “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”, applicants had to write a letter to a person they know who needs inspiration in his or her life.

Carmona chose to address the letter to her sister, a recent journalism school graduate who was having a tough time finding her first job. Jennifer eventually found a position and is now a journalism graduate student at Columbia University.

For Carmona, the future holds more hard work that she knows will ultimately lead to a fulfilling career packed with adventure. She wants to travel, and fittingly is considering working as a pastry chef on a cruise line when she graduates and specializing in designer cakes.

“Nicole has a lot of potential and ability,” said her Culinary Arts teacher Peter Tomaskovic. “She could really excel in this industry as she matures in the profession.”