Students are brewing up something special at St. Paul VI Catholic High School in Chantilly.
“Good morning, and welcome to the Panther Perks Café,” greets super senior Jon Mason, who directs the customer to senior Megan Miller. Miller writes down the customer’s coffee order: “Order up!” she calls. Baristas Isaiah Bertulfo and Stella Ferguson take the order and leap into action, pouring coffee, mixing sweeteners and adding a specially designed koozie to the coffee cup.
Several times a month, students in Paul VI’s Options Program open the doors of their classroom to welcome teachers to the Panther Perks Café. The Options Program assists students with intellectual disabilities and pairs each with a peer mentor student, who accompanies them through special and general education classes.
Each student has a job to do at the café. While the baristas are pouring and mixing, Jaz Zeweri stamps the customer’s loyalty card and hands them their beverage with another, “Order up!” Freddy Perrotta mans the cash register, using the school’s ID system to charge the customer and complete the transaction. As a finishing touch, he offers customers a “Panther Perks” branded sticker, designed by Bertulfo.
Options students have been serving up java for the last few years, but the café is a new feature. “Panther Perks used to be a coffee cart,” said Mason. “All of the different teachers here, we would go to their rooms, and we would give them coffee.” Now, the teachers come to the students and have more opportunities to mingle.
The larger café venue also allows for additional drink options. Panther Perks boasts an extensive menu of coffee and tea options, as well as coffee fixings including flavored syrups and creamers. Special beverages include “Panther Mocha Madness,” and the “Pink Panther Refresher,” a strawberry-lemonade-based beverage.
Before opening, Bertulfo sets out an A-frame chalkboard sign advertising “The Panther Perks Café.” Special Education teacher Amanda McCloskey calls the students for a staff meeting, where they review customer service basics. Students brew the coffee, design coffee cup koozies, cut out coffee shop loyalty cards and clean the café. Peer mentor students also help with the prep, but it’s the Options students who run the show.
While creating colorful coffee koozies, Ferguson wants to leave customers with a reminder of their friendly barista. “I’m drawing myself,” she said, drawing her smiling face on the cardboard koozie.
The gesture resonates with the teachers. “I love seeing the Options students’ smiles; it just always warms my heart to see them so happy and just having fun,” said math teacher Ashley Kiechlin. “Plus, add a bonus coffee.”
The café also prepares students for the daily grind of professional, service-based jobs. “We have them do a purchase order to purchase stuff. We have them plan out the drinks. We have them get into uniform,” McCloskey said. “Today in the first period, we were talking about, ‘How do you dress appropriately for work?’ ”
“I really try to tailor the class to what they like,” she added.
The lessons pay off, as Miller demonstrates. “I’m going to graduate this year, and I’m going to work at Ford’s Fish Shack,” she said, referring to a local seafood restaurant. After college, she hopes to return to work at Paul VI: “It’s my dream job.”
