[CDN Photo | Joanne Benedicto]
THE University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) formally opened their new coffee shop, Centro Caffé, last February 11.
Located on the campus, the coffee shop will serve as a training center for the students taking the university’s Barista and Baking short courses.
Lourdes D. Jereza, the creator of the cafe, said that the idea for the shop was formed after observing how students love staying and interacting in coffee shops.
“While they [students] are studying and doing their research, they want to hang around in a coffee shop. So I was inspired to have one,” she said.
Aside from being a new hangout spot for the students, the main reason for the creation of the coffee shop was for the hands-on experience of graduating students. The students will be running the shop and will be serving people from within the university.
“This is not a commercial establishment; this is a center for training. Even the baking of our cookies, muffins, and bread, it will be made by our students,” Jereza explained.
The students will be undergoing training in the café and will be required to work for a total of one hundred hours before receiving a certificate signifying the completion of their training.
Jereza, who has been in the institution for almost fifty years, hopes that the establishment of the café will serve as good practice for the students to fully equip them with better skills and to provide the rest of the student body with a great new place to interact, because as she believes, “many good things happen over coffee.”