Students, staff and alumni celebrated Emerson School of Hospitality’s 20th anniversary Wednesday while sharing its recipe for success. 

At the West Chippewa Street location, high school students learn anything from the basics of chopping vegetables to crafting culinary masterpieces during their time there. 

For Khyvana Wilson Dowell, Emerson has been a part of her family for generations.  Her dad graduated in 1994 and soon after started teaching at the school. She followed in his steps and graduated in 2012, then continued her education at Niagara Community College for a baking and pastry degree.

She, too, is now a teacher at the school. 

Some of her siblings have also graduated and another will soon. She tells them what she knows to be true: Emerson is much more than a school. 

“It's quite an amazing thing that we have here in the school, that you're able to be so grounded and so well rounded that by the time you leave here you'll be able to at least get a cook, between a cook one and a cook three job and that will pay anywhere from $15 to $17 an hour,” Dowell said. “We try very hard to partner with communities and things like that.”

In January, the growing school will expand again, with the New Buffalo School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management opening on Huron Street. 

The Occupational Training Center that's currently at BPS School #28 will also move to the new space.