Julia Brodsky ’13 (East Meadow, N.Y.), a neuroscience major, and Taylor Miller ’13 (Glenside, Pa.), a geology and art double major, love cooking. As first-year students, they could often be found in the lounge of Ruef Hall, cooking up delectable dishes and filling the halls with enticing aromas of baked goods.
“We started investing in more and more baking supplies and cooking utensils. Eventually, we began to think, ‘well, what if we had a special interest floor based on cooking?’” Brodsky says.
This year, their idea turned into the C.A.F.E. (Cooking and Food Enthusiasts) Floor, a special interest living group in the basement of South College.
“Our floor’s goals are to improve each individual’s cooking abilities, to attempt to create foods from different cultures, and to bond as a floor through food and cooking,” Brodsky says.
The dozen students living on the C.A.F.E. Floor cook meals together, bake together, and bring un-affiliated friends over to help dream creative spins on simple foods—like mixing pretzels, M&Ms, and crushed sugar cookies into brownies.
They get together to cook and share dinners, and baked cookies for the Art Society’s annual Block pARTy. They often have members of other special interest floors over for meals, including combining efforts with the TREEhouse living floor to make a dinner of sustainable foods.
Brodsky says what she most likes about living on the C.A.F.E. floor is having a space to bake.
“It’s something fun to do in my free time, especially with other members and other friends. Baking or cooking together is a great way to bond. No matter how poorly the dishes turn out, we always have a lot of fun cooking them–but they usually turn out to be quite delicious!”
Results from NSSE can provide prospective students with insights into how they might learn and develop at a given college. 