Elizabethtown College senior Rachel Skwirutis uses her love and passion for cooking to teach other students some helpful tips that will bring them success in their future cooking endeavors. On Tuesday, March 8, Skwirut, along with her fellow Class of 2022 Senate, sponsored the very first “Cooking 101: Learning the Basics.” As graduation is quickly approaching in May, the 2022 Senators took the time to brainstorm ideas for fun ways to engage the student body.

“We came up with the initial idea of how to do your taxes and cook, but it turns out I don’t know how to do taxes, so I just took on the cooking part,” Skwirut said.

Skwirut remembers back to what sparked her interest in cooking. Growing up, a lot of her life and family gatherings had been centered around food. To Skwirut, cooking is a way she can show appreciation for others.

On the other hand, cooking can also be a way to show appreciation for yourself, as “it can be very therapeutic if you know how to do it because you’re feeding your body. Feeding your body is important,” Skwirut said.

Skwirut’s desire to bring comfort and joy to others, along with her class senate’s support, is what drove her to follow through with hosting the cooking classes. This past week’s class revolved around vegetables—how to cut, cook and season them. “I really couldn’t be happier with how the first class went. I thought it went very well! I was happy that so many people were interested in it,” Skwirut said.

As someone who attended the class myself, I was very impressed with how organized and informative the entire event was. Skwirut expressed: “I would like [it] if this was an actual class on campus. If there was some way to have a life skills class, I think that would be really important for students to have here.”

Looking ahead, Skwirut says she plans to host more events in her cooking series in the coming weeks. This next week, Skwirut will be doing a lesson about different types of rice and grains, as well as how to properly cook and season rice. Some other lesson plan ideas she is thinking about include: how to cook and marinate chicken/meat substitutes and learning about sauces and soups.

“If you would like to sign up for other classes, the link is in the Class of 2022 Instagram bio. Tell your friends, bring your friends. It is a very beginner level, no cooking skills needed—actually no cooking skills preferred,” Skwirut said.