Mount Joy, PA – Thomas Feguer wasn’t sure what he wanted to be when he grew up.

The soccer- and tennis-playing senior from Elizabethtown Area School District was willing to try a cooking class at his sending school for the food, and he found that he genuinely enjoyed being a part of a culinary team. Feguer had “a bunch of goofballs” in his group who were also game to replicate a Gordon Ramsay dish for their final project. 

“I think I made a biscuit, like, maybe two weeks before” the team attempted sausage, honey, and cheddar biscuits, he said. “So many things went wrong, and our oven didn’t get to the right temp[erature], so our biscuits didn’t brown right or anything. But we still ended up winning the final against a really good-looking smash burger and some kind of pasta. … It was that moment [that] I think I knew I wanted to do [culinary arts].” 

Feguer started working at Taco Bell in June of 2022, at the chain’s brand-new Mount Joy location. He remembered his manager texting him directly to encourage him to submit a video application for the Live Más Scholarship through the Taco Bell Foundation. “Later on, in April, my store manager was like, “Oh, yeah, we’re having a meeting celebrating our core evaluation, which is when corporate comes in to make sure we’re doing our job right,” he said. He recalled the pressure to attend, which was all a set-up to award his first $10,000 scholarship. Feguer emphasized the shock of seeing the big check and the realization that he could continue to apply. 

He next submitted a montage of himself working in the store with a voiceover in his second application, earning $10,000 of the $20,000 he applied for. He decided to “shoot for the moon” this year with another video of himself cooking in the kitchen at Taco Bell. He was awarded $25,000. Feguer explained that in sum, he and the other 27 scholarship winners from his ownership franchise were given a little over half a million dollars, which meant “we pretty much swept the competition.” 

Feguer felt a kind of “kick” from his scholarship awards to make active moves towards becoming a culinary professional. Following his high school Foods and Nutrition courses and his second scholarship award, he joined the Lancaster County Career and Technology Center (LCCTC) to “learn how to play in the sandbox.” He feels he has grown in his leadership abilities and “work ethic is such a big part of it.” He admits he didn’t know much before joining the full-day Culinary Arts program — “I knew nothing about a hollandaise sauce or fine julienne cuts” — and was nervous that he would feel behind in comparison to students who have worked in food trucks or parents’ restaurants. In retrospect, he says, “We’re all here to learn… and everyone knows that…. You get what you put into it.” 

Feguer is headed to the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in New York this fall for his bachelor’s degree in food and business. With knowledge from their business classes and connections through CIA networking events, he hopes to become a private chef for athletes and sports teams. 

About the LCCTC: The Lancaster County Career & Technology Center (LCCTC) is a full-service career and technical school dedicated to preparing high school students and adults for careers in the new economy. Lancaster County CTC is best among its class and strives to meet the highest standards of quality instruction. For more information regarding our mission, programs, or initiatives, please visit lancasterctc.edu.