Welcome Back!

All Gingerbread Bash Submissions must be in by Tomorrow, Friday, 01/09!

Enjoy Abby's Alien Space Ship design from the Hospitality Ohio team! All needed competition documents (rules, score sheets, and example recipe) as well as event registration are available via the Educator Portal here. Password: 2025*ProStart

ProStart Invitational Registration is Open!

WE NEED YOU for the Super Bowl of student hospitality competitions! Register Today! In addition to the Top Teams awards, there are multiple culinary and management student team awards options, including Best Menu, Top Culinary Student, Best Team Presentation, and more! Everything you need is in the Educator Portal HERE. We are hoping to have 5 more management teams register!

We will be having an informational call on Tuesday, February 3rd, from 2:30-3:30 pm to discuss FAQ's and to answer any questions you may have on the event. Please submit any questions you may have to info@oraef.org by Tuesday, January 27th, so we can prepare the best answers for you! Join the call HERE.

Mac is Back- Deadline to Register January 16th!

See who will prepare the tastiest mac in Ohio. The Ohio ProStart and Ohio Hospitality CTSO Mac & Cheese Competition, hosted by The American Dairy Association and The Hilton Columbus Downtown, is returning with a new twist! The initial competition will be held virtually, and the top three teams will move on to compete live at the Ohio ProStart Invitational on March 10th. Only two schools have signed up: Tri-County Career Center and Vanguard. A minimum of 10 teams must be registered to move forward with the competition, 8 more teams are neded. Rules and registration are located in the educator portal here. Submissions are due February 9th.

This is a great way to introduce students to a ProStart competition. Reach out with questions!

Scholarship Application Closes January 30th!

Free money for your student's education! We have ZERO applications. Please have your students fill out the Ohio Hospitality Scholarship Application HERE. Application closes January 30th!

Some scholarships require a COA, while many do not.

Interested in knowing what trends to keep an eye on next year?

The National Restaurant Association has released its 2026 What's Hot Culinary Forecast, available here.

CTSO Community Service Events & Shout Outs!

If you are enrolled in the Ohio Hospitailty CTSO, December was Community Service month. You are required to execute a community service event during the month. Check out the great things our chapters accomplished!

Vanguard Tech Center students baked and decorated cookies and donated them to the Fremont Police Department.

Polaris Career Center hosted a food drive and collected over 5000 items of food. The pantries they donated to were: Berea Community Outreach, Christians in Action (Olmsted Falls), Strongsville Food Bank, Oxcart Food Pantry (North Olmsted), and Brooklyn Schools Food Bank.

South Western Career Academy's culinary students organized, prepared and served 350 breakfasts for the 8th annuel Prairie Township Breakfast with Santa event. The school and program have been involved with this event since its inception.

The following schools still need to submit thier community service project for November AND December: C-Tec, Dater, Ehove, Lancaster, and Vantage. This is a requirement of the CTSO. Please submit ASAP.

We also want to highlight one of our former ProStart Students! Violet Lowe (previously with Penta Career Center and Ohio ProStart scholarship recipient) won the Ohio ProStart Student of the Year award! Check out her acceptance speech here.

Leadership Lab Rescheduled!

The Ohio Hospitality CTSO's Leadership Lab will be held on March 26th. This event is a requirement of the Ohio Hospitality CTSO. Registration will open at the end of January.

Pre-Apprenticeship Program

Students can earn their COA (Certificate of Achievement) and Pre-Apprenticeship designation. Both are work-based learning opportunities. A COA earns 9 points toward graduation, and a Pre-Apprenticeship earns 12. The process is simple, with just a few forms to complete.

Email info@oraef.org with any questions.

This is a great opportunity for your students!

Click HERE to view the Pre-Apprenticeship Guidelines & Click HERE for the Pre-Apprenticeship Application

Educator Portal

The new educator Portal password is 2025*ProStart. Let us know if there are additional resources you would like to see.

Ohio Hospitality CTSO

All Student Waivers must be completed to use Ohio Hospitality as your CTSO. Link to the waiver is HERE
CTSO Handbook is HERE
Submit your CTSO Chapter Leaders so that we can send out the online training. The link to submit is HERE

If you have submitted your student leaders, they should have received an email with thier student leader training! The following schools still need to submit thier student leaders ASAP:

Dater & Lancaster