There is a lack of persistence and completion of students enrolled in a local college culinary arts program, a problem also evident in national data. Some students entering the college program have participated in a defined high school curriculum focused on culinary arts, such as the National Restaurant Association Education Association's ProStart curriculum. The purpose of this study was to determine if participation in the ProStart program was related to the mean grade point average (GPA) and time to completion in the college culinary arts program. Dewey's theory of experience provided the theoretical framework. Participants from 2 cohorts at the local college students who participated in ProStart (n = 17) and those who did not (n = 122) were examined for GPA and number of months to program completion. A t test revealed the students who participated in ProStart had higher average GPAs. There was no statistically significant difference in the time to completion between the 2 groups. The analysis must be viewed within the limitations of the available sample size of the ProStart group, and further study is recommended with larger group sizes. Based on the results of this study, a peer-to-peer mentoring program pairing ProStart with non ProStart students was developed and recommended to the research site. The implications for social change include providing research results to the local site and a recommendation for a mentoring program to improve the rate of completion in the culinary arts program.

Distance learning is gaining popularity in many education environments. Online classes are on the increase because students need alternatives to traditional face-to-face classroom training. Time constraint on today's students coupled with the need for education to keep up with advances in technology, in all fields, has forced educators to facilitate training avenues other than traditional methods to perform this pedagogy. Students' perceptions of online classes along with differing learning styles are making this process challenging. Many colleges and universities are reporting alarmingly higher dropout rates of online students versus their traditional classroom students. There are many variables that can be attributed to this outcome and current research is looking at ways to increase the completion rate of this growing learning alternative. The purpose of this study is to examine some of the variables involved in the learning process that might have an effect on the online learning process. This may lead to a better understanding of why the completion rates are lower for online students. Some of the variables reviewed in this study are learning styles and technology acceptance, both of which can have an influence on the student's reception of the learning material. Online students scored higher in all but one of the technology acceptance scores. Learning styles showed a greater number of read/write learners in online classes and a greater number of kinesthetic learners in traditional classes. Instructors teaching styles also had a relationship with the students' successful completion of online classes.