By Jonathan Rosales ’19
There are various amounts of clubs for students to join but where are the clubs for teachers? Katie Curtin, Journalism teacher, created a club back in April of 2017 called the “Cookbook club.” This club is only for female staff members.
Curtin’s reason for creating the club was by “first coming across the idea of a cookbook club through Ms. Nelson, who was part of a cookbook club at a cookbook store in Lincoln Park” The store was all about cooking as Curtin stated, “The store is all about selling cookbooks and the idea of the book and club was to make recipes, come in and have dinner.” Once Curtin went to the store, she joined the club there.
When Curtin mentioned the cookbook idea to the staff at Pritzker, they stated “it was a good idea and sounded like a lot of fun.” Curtin said “over the summer, coincidently, my cook book club was canceled at that store because not many people showed up. I was then excited to start the club in Pritzker.” Another reason Curtin created this club was because she “noticed the men at Pritzker tend to have multiple traditions of their own like mustache day and believed female staff members also needed their own thing.”
Samantha Corvino, a current member in the cookbook club, said, “Ms. Curtin and I were discussing it be a great idea to bring people together, spend some time together, and get to know each other a bit more. We thought this would be fun with food too.”
Curtin was also asked if there was anything else to do other than cook. Curtin claimed, “We just chat. We meet once a month, cook our food ahead of time, and bring it. It’s really just sitting and eating dinner.” Curtin also mentioned “we also take turns hosting at different people’s houses.”
Curtin also mentioned that the club benefitted her very much, “It’s fun to see people outside of school, especially people I don’t often work with. I don’t regularly get to see Ms. Golden because she’s an eleventh grade math teacher and she is in the third floor and I am in the first floor. Seeing staff members I normally wouldn’t connect with is nice.” The club has been a benefit for also the female staff members to hang out and cook
Corivo was asked for her favorite part in the club and she stated, “I like to spend time with people outside of work, getting to know them, and eating good food.” She also added, “We talk about issues that have come up in work or things that we might not have time to discuss in school. So in the club we have plenty of time to discuss.”
Curtin was later asked if she’d thinks the club was a success once the club was brought to Pritzker, and Curtin claimed, “ The goal is just to have fun. I believe this is enjoyable and that is the goal. Successful, it is not like we have a lot of people showing up but that’s ok because everyone should feel welcomed when they feel like it and not feel pressured.”
Since this club meets outside of school hours and outside of the school building, it’s only for staff members as of now, Curtin stated. She also said other female members have join the club. They are not part of the staff but have been involved with Pritzker longer than other staff members.
