News
The Staff and Students of Rancho Cielo are constantly learning, participating in the community at large, and making a difference.
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Edible Notables: Ranch Lessons
Chef Estevan Jimenez reaches up into a mature fruit tree in Rancho Cielo’s organic garden and pulls down a Santa Rosa plum, dark red, round and ripe. He bites into it and it takes him back to his childhood.
“It’s one of the first tastes I remember,” says Jimenez, who grew up in the Central Valley to immigrant parents. His mother worked in a packing shed and brought fruit home for the family. For Jimenez, the memories are as sweet and poignant as that plum.
Now, Jimenez—whom everyone calls EJ—works with at-risk young people...
Growing AgTech Industry Inspires New Course At Salinas Nonprofit
Rancho Cielo is a nonprofit in Salinas that offers at-risk youth the chance to prepare for jobs in a range of industries, from culinary to construction. Their newest program trains youth to work in the growing AgTech sector.
In a classroom on the Rancho Cielo Youth Campus, students complete an assignment for the new Agriculture Processing and Mechanics course. It’s a new 10-month course that began this August. Jessiah Ramirez says it’s already changed his life.
Read the full story by Michelle Loxton at kazu.org .
Community college education is evolving – along with the jobs it’s training students for.
The ag industry’s appetite for skilled workers is also being filled by another institution. At a distance of 20 minutes by car from Alisal is the Rancho Cielo Youth Campus, a school for underserved and disconnected youth. Earlier in August, Rancho Cielo opened the Ted Taylor Ag Vocational Center, becoming the third such training hub, in addition to a construction academy and a culinary academy. (These programs each enroll up to 40 students at time.)
Read the full story by Asaf Shalev on MontereyCountyWeekly.com .
DCA students assisted chefs at Markon's Chef Summit
Markon hosted their Chef Summit at Rancho Cielo this past July. Drummond Culinary Academy students assisted chefs and gained valuable firsthand experience from leaders in the field.
Read more about the event here:
Chefs convene at Markon summit to focus on plant-forward dishes
Rancho Cielo aims to grow ag-tech skills for Salinas-area youth with new program
A fresh crop of students will spend the next 10 months learning to fix and maintain industrial food processing equipment as part of a new Rancho Cielo program that started Tuesday.
The Ted Taylor Ag-Vocational Center will train students at a new building with classrooms and a replica of a food-processing plant's floor and refrigeration unit so students learn hands-on, said Susie Brusa, CEO of Rancho Cielo.
Read the full story by Joe Szydlowski in the Salinas Californian here .
Rancho Cielo chosen as an adopted charity at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering
Rancho Cielo was chosen as an adopted charity at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering. We are so thankful to The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering and to Quail Lodge & Golf Club.
Check out the coverage in the following articles:
The Quail features luxury from tickets to tail pipes
Thousands flocked to the Quail Motorsports Gathering in Carmel
The cars, the shows and the dreary economic warning—a look back at Car Week.
A new program at Rancho Cielo aims to give high schoolers employable skills in the ag business.
High school in the traditional sense wasn’t for Kassandra Martinez. During her freshman and sophomore years at Everett Alvarez High School, she decided to just stay home, figuring her mom wouldn’t notice because she’d already left for work.
But that plan caught up with her, and Martinez started looking for an alternate path. That path led her to Rancho Cielo, where next week she will enroll in the first class at the nonprofit’s newest academy for agricultural mechanics and electrical.
Read the full story by Sara Rubin in the Monterey County Weekly ...
Rancho Cielo unveils brand new ag facility and program
Rancho Cielo is opening their new Ted Taylor Ag Vocational Training Center. The new facility will offer Ag Mechanics and Electrical training, giving students hands on experience and a behind the scenes look into the Ag industry.
“They will be learning the fundamentals of refrigeration, HVAC systems, basic and more advanced classes in electrical,” said Cecilia Romero, the deputy director for Rancho Cielo. “They’ll learn how to apply those skills by using the machinery they’ll find out in the industry.”
Read the full story on KSBW.com .
Family Fun Day is August 25
Family Fun Day is on Sunday, August 25 from 10 am - 2 pm. There will be food, performances, bounce houses. face painting, and more. Admission is FREE!