Coffee Cats continues to “brew” success at Enterprise High

ENTERPRISE, Ala. (WTVY) - Enterprise High School is “brewing” opportunities, and coffee, to ensure that graduates with special needs find success after high school.

Coffee Cats is a class that teaches students customer service and hard work. Five years flew by since the class has started.

It has gone through a lot of growth since then.

“I have been with it since the beginning; it started in my classroom,” Taylor Gosselin, the Coffee Cats instructor, said. “It has worked up each year, and now it’s in the school store.”

Employees greet guests with a smile and learn what it means to be on a team.

“I know it’s hard to work hard, and it’s not that easy in Enterprise, Adam Darway, a first year Coffee Cat student, said. “But I know all of us can work together as a group, even though all of us don’t get on the same page, but that’s all we can hope for - for the best.”

The students work like professionals and train like professionals.

“So, we have worked with businesses in the community,” Gosselin said. “We’ve worked with the Bean Bro, and we are just working with our students to learn those work skills - and life skills - to do meaningful employment when they exit our program.”

The students build a resume and go through an interview process to work at Coffee Cats.

“We had the study guide, and then we had like, an interview,” Olivia Yates, a second year Coffee Cat student, said. “It was good though.”

The students hard work and extensive training makes the perfect “blend” for employers.

“We have some at Publixs. We had some at McDonalds, and they get very good reviews,” Gosselin said. “The businesses say they can tell they have been trained while they were here in high school.”

Right now, the shop is only open on Fridays for faculty. As the students build a routine, there will be additional hours.

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