NDSCS Culinary Arts students and faculty are scheduled to host the program’s 4th annual Scholarship Dinner on Thursday, February 29th in the Hektner Student Center at NDSCS Wahpeton.

The annual Culinary Scholarship Dinner helps raise funds to support scholarship dollars for Culinary Arts students, increasing accessibility for students to attend this program at NDSCS. This dinner is also an excellent opportunity for students to help create and serve a multi-course fine dining experience for guests, teaching important on-the-job skills and benefiting their overall Culinary education.

The schedule of events includes a guest social and multi-course meal. The 6-course dinner with wine pairings is prepared and served by culinary students, faculty, and program alumni and will be followed by a new feature – a wine raffle! Guests can purchase a cork for $25, and each cork matches with a bottle of wine, ranging in value up to $150!

Guest chefs for the 2024 Culinary Scholarship Dinner will include:

• NDSCS Culinary Arts Alumni:
  • Joe Brunner from Mezzaluna in Fargo
  • Alyssa Berger from 84 Steakhouse in Fargo
  • Summer Peterson from BernBaum’s in Fargo
  • Grace Lamberson from the Toasted Frog in Grand Forks
  • Kevin Roller from NDSCS Dining Services
• Friend of the NDSCS Culinary Arts program:
  • Mark Schmidt of Bix Produce

Tickets are available online at NDSCS.edu/Culinary-Dinner for $125 per person. Thanks to the guest chefs and other supportive partners in the Culinary industry, much of the food and supplies are donated for the Scholarship Dinner. That means most of each ticket price goes right back to the program in the Culinary Arts Endowment Fund, and is a tax-deductible donation.

By Tri-College University

There is no doubt that 2020 has presented challenges without precedent. Academic challenges, nimbleness and creativity have been at the forefront in higher education. The campus faculty and the students were dramatically affected by limited physical access to the campuses due to COVID-19. Faculty had to quickly and expertly switch from students in the seats and side by side in labs to a distance instructional model. This dramatic shift to essentially migrate to 100% online platforms in a period of generally only two weeks ignited the spirit of creativity and collaboration by dedicated faculty.

To honor and hold up faculty members who successfully transitioned from traditional in class instruction to alternative distance delivery options, Tri-College University has awarded Tri-College University Excellence in Innovation and Adaptive Education Awards.

Benjamin Whitmore from North Dakota State College of Science was selected for the award for his excellence, innovation, creativity and successful use of advanced technology in producing high quality education under the challenge of limited time allowed for successful transition to a fully distance delivery classroom as a result of the global pandemic.

“Education faculty were challenged with developing new delivery systems over a very short period to ensure quality instruction prevailed over the challenges presented by COVID-19 limitations. Educators performed this task with amazing results and ensured that students stayed on track to achieve their academic goals. Benjamin has the additional challenge in that this occurred during his first year of full-time instruction,” said Tri-College Provost Tim Flakoll.

These commendation awards will help highlight excellence, inspire creativity and fuel how we will deliver excellent instruction in the future.

Tri-College University partnered with Xcel Energy to provide five (5) awards, one at each of the partner campuses of Concordia College, MSUM, NDSU, M State and NDSCS. Award recipients received a plaque and cash award.

Tri-College University is a partnership who this year celebrates their 50^th anniversary. Their partner campuses represent approximately 35,000 full and part time students.