Aspire to Inspire: Diana’s Recipe for Making a Food-Service Dream Job a Reality 

Diana was featured on CAN-TV along with Aspire CEO Serena Alaily, click here to view her amazing segment.

Diana can already picture herself working in a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. The white linens. The plates finished with one last swirl of sauce. Back-of-house staff anticipating every diner’s need before they even ask. She’s stood in one of his restaurants before, and she remembers exactly what she thought looking around. “I can see myself working here,” she said. “I know I can do this.”

Diana’s ambition for a career in food service goes back to high school. For four years, she’s built toward it through her involvement with Aspire, one deliberate step at a time. Ask anyone who works with her and they’ll tell you the same thing: Diana shows up prepared. She’s been known to walk into interviews with her answers written out ahead of time. Not because she needs the script. Because she takes every opportunity seriously enough to meet it head-on.

That same drive carried her through Aspire’s inaugural 10-week Food Services Employment Training Program (ETP), and now it’s carrying her into her first restaurant internship.

Building the Skills for What Comes Next

Aspire launched its Food Services ETP to provide ambitious people like Diana with new techniques, strong workplace habits, and lessons about food safety through a carefully structured curriculum, built-in collaboration with food service professionals and Aspire career guides. For Diana, it was the natural next step, a bridge between the restaurant experience she already loved and the full-time career she’s determined to build.

She dug into every part of it. Working alongside Chef Joe, Aspire’s Food Services ETP Manager, she learned her way around a professional kitchen, workplace safety, food safety, the rhythm of front- and back-of-house work, building toward an 8-week paid internship with a local restaurant. But Joe says the biggest transformation wasn’t on the line.

“I have been so impressed with Diana’s commitment to the program,” Joe said. “She has gone from being afraid to speak up to a fabulous communicator. She truly strives to do better each and every day. Her positivity is contagious, and her work ethic will make her a true star in this field.”

Finding Her Voice

Training alongside others from different backgrounds pushed Diana to communicate with more confidence and lean into being part of a team. Those are skills that go well beyond the kitchen.

For Diana, cooking was never separate from something bigger. “People with disabilities are often underestimated,” she said. “We are smart, capable, and able to succeed when given a fair chance.”

That belief follows her outside of work, too. Diana bowls with the Special Olympics. She’s run track, performed in dance productions, and practices yoga. On weekends, she’s just as likely to be out walking or shopping with friends from Aspire. She brings the same energy to everything she does.

Inspiring Others Along the Way

She wants to pass that energy on, too. “Aspire to inspire before you expire” has become something of a personal motto for Diana, a reminder that reaching your own goals means helping the people around you reach theirs, too. Right now, one of her priorities is helping her close friend Lorena build the confidence to speak up, the same way Diana once did.

“At Aspire, people with different disabilities and support needs come together,” Diana said. “We may be different, but we are all equal.”

Now, with 10 weeks of training behind her, Diana is stepping into her internship at a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant, one more concrete step toward the restaurant career she’s pictured for years. True to form, she’s already looking past this milestone. She wants to use what she’s learned to help her friends and community chase their own dreams, too.

What’s next? Diana is excited to put the lessons from Aspire’s Food Services ETP to work as she begins her internship, one more step toward the lifelong dream of working in a major kitchen. She’s driven. She’s positive. And her work ethic speaks for itself.

Wherever she lands next, they’d be lucky to work alongside this rising star, Chef Ramsay included. For Diana, the dream was never a matter of if, only when.

The contents of this article were developed under grant H421F240008 from the U.S. Department of Education (Department). The Department does not mandate or prescribe practices, models, or other activities described or discussed in this document. The contents of this article may contain examples of, adaptations of, and links to resources created and maintained by another public or private organization. The Department does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this outside information. The content of this article does not necessarily represent the policy of the Department. This publication is not intended to represent the views or policy of or be an endorsement of any views expressed or materials provided by any Federal agency. (EDGAR 75.620)