High school cafe: Behind the scenes of Seneca Valley’s Raider Roast
JACKSON TWP — Acquiring workplace skills is at the center of the vocational readiness class at Seneca Valley Senior High School, and a great of deal of the path to get there lies outside a traditional classroom space.
A student-run cafe on the premises has come to be the first work experience for many students at the school since the program’s inception in 2017.
Almost 500 students have worked at Raider Roast, which sells beverages in the mornings to staff and students, daily, until the start of the lunch period.
The program is designed to transfer hard and soft skills from classrooms to a real life application, said Jessica Pyle, a special education transition coordinator at the school district.
“We’ve come a long way with the products that we have, and then also with the amount of students that have got to learn and grow from this experience,” Pyle said. “It’s just such a hands-on experience that they don’t get in the classroom.”
One senior at the high school, Rylee Johnson, has helped manage the cafe through various roles, from barista to cashier.
Johnson said she has enjoyed working at the shop and that her favorite part is interacting with customers and assisting them.
In addition to coffee, Raider Roast has added many other products like specialty coffee drinks, hot chocolate and boba tea to its menu over time.
Profit is not a priority for Raider Roast, but providing students an avenue to develop employment skills is, Pyle said.
“We are self-sustainable,” she said. “We want to keep our prices affordable so that it gives our students more opportunities.”
Since Raider Roast opened almost a decade ago in a space that used to be a faculty dining room, the cost of coffee, at $1.50, has remained unchanged.
But the cafe has evolved in one substantial way.
“When we first started, it wasn’t an inclusive environment,” Pyle said. She said there is now an increased emphasis on inclusivity and collaboration within the cafe space.
Backed by transition specialists and students taking an Introduction to Special Education College in High School course, many of the individuals who look after the cafe’s day-to-day proceedings are those with special needs or disabilities.
Visual aid is placed at the cafe to help the student workers manage tasks and transactions at Raider Roast, Pyle said. Technological tools are also available to help some, like nonverbal students, communicate more effectively.
College in High School volunteers are an integral part of operations, too. Raider Roast opens every morning with an crew of those volunteers who set up the shop.
“That’s not part of their class,” Pyle said. “It’s students who are older, who have worked here for a while, who want that experience.”
The volunteers have a checklist of jobs to kick off the business day, which is then managed by students of the vocational readiness class.
“Throughout one full day, we’ll have 12 students who are working, along with the support from our CHS students,” Pyle said. Four students work each of the three shifts in roles like cashiers and baristas.
College in High School students continue to support the cafe through the day, like organizing instructions to assist the special needs students.
“It lists those steps for them to try to make them as independent as possible while doing the jobs,” Pyle said.
A sign outside the cafe marks Raider Roast as a classroom, “because it is,” Pyle said. Students are learning, and they’re teaching, at the coffee shop.
Working at the cafe helps the special needs students improve their interpersonal communication with their peers, Pyle said.
Liz Wimer, a transition specialist at Seneca Valley, records and tracks data to evaluate students’ progress with the goal of preparing them for work outside of the school environment.
“That’s the next step for a lot of the students,” Pyle said. “They start learning their skills here, and then typically in 11th-grade is when they would go out in the community.”
Raider Roast is a fan favorite among many students too, and some shared their gratitude for the cafe crew.
One student at the school, Lexi Koliscak, said she appreciated having a spot in-house to get good and inexpensive drinks.
Lucy McGill, also a student, said the student staff’s hospitality stands out.
“As soon as I walk up, I feel like they’re very happy to help me,” McGill said. “If you have any questions, they always answer right away.”
“And they’re very polite,” said Sahara Ruggerio, another student.
Pyle said the mingling at the cafe snowballs into a sense of community.
“It starts here and then it is seen throughout the day,” Pyle said.
