How CNM’s Culinary Arts Program Helped This Student Find the Recipe for Her Future

Growing up, Sarah Wright often watched the Food Network show “Good Eats” with her parents. It was the first time she can remember having an interest in the culinary arts. 

“Cooking shows were something that would always catch my interest. I wouldn't have to push myself to be interested. I just was,” Sarah says. 

In the kitchen, Sarah fell in love with baking because she liked the process of meeting the exacting standards baking often demands. 

Fast forward to today, and Sarah’s interest has only grown. She decided to make food her career and enrolled in CNM’s Culinary Arts program. 

“Enrolling felt like a puzzle piece just clicked into place,” she says.

Before landing in the Culinary Arts program, Sarah dabbled in biology, nursing, and religious studies, but none of those sparked the kind of passion she felt around food.

“With those other degrees, I never saw a progression like I did with Culinary Arts,” she says. “In Culinary Arts I got A’s and I was really engaged. I was understanding everything and doing all the homework. This is the first degree I've pursued that has actually felt like I'm pushing myself forward.”

Sarah attributes her success in CNM’s program to her own interest, her instructors’ skills and experience, and the structure and creative freedom that’s baked into the curriculum. She also loves the atmosphere at CNM.

As a kid she used to spend time at CNM, then TVI, with her dad Shawn Wright, a CNM biology professor for 37 years.

“CNM has always had such a family feeling,” Sarah says. “Honestly, that's continued. I've never had a teacher here who’s been rude or unkind. They've always been very understanding, open to talking and hearing my perspective.”

Sarah is also thankful for the opportunity she’s been given at CNM to gain important real-world experience. She landed a position at the upscale steakhouse Antiquity soon after entering the program. 

With just two terms left, Sarah now works as the pastry chef at Paako Ridge Golf Club in Albuquerque’s East Mountains. Her overarching career goal is to open her own bakery in Los Lunas, near her home in Peralta. 

“There's only one mom and pop bakery in Los Lunas that I really enjoy going to. But on Sundays they’re out of doughnuts by 9 a.m., so I know there’s a market - especially with Amazon and Facebook moving in,” she says. “There are more people here all the time and I would love to help satisfy their sweet tooth.”