Owens Outstanding Culinary Graduate Ball Follows Her Heart into Kitchen
Jenine Ball was well on her way to earning a bachelor degree and becoming a high school history teacher when she sat in on a class at a local high school for a semester. It was like a splash of cold water in her face, and she realized being a teacher wasn’t what she wanted to do.
So Ball did the only thing she could, slamming on the brakes and starting over at a new school and in a completely new program.
Having worked in the food service industry and in a scratch kitchen at a local restaurant, the Sylvania native turned her sights to a career in culinary. She found the Owens program after an online search and never looked back.
Ball will graduate with an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts this month. She was also named the program’s outstanding graduate.
“It’s what my heart was telling me to do. I think my head was telling me to follow what my parents want me to do, but my heart was like, ‘I love cooking. I love being in the kitchen,’” Ball said.
“It was scary, and it did take a lot of courage to sit down with my parents and tell them that I was going to do this. It’s a decision I would never go back on. No regrets.”
Along with her online research, the sous chef at Ball’s job had gone through the Owens program, so Ball had a good idea of what to expect. She showed up for an orientation in her kitchen work clothes right before the start of the 2023 fall semester, where Amy Morford, associate professor in culinary arts, and Robert Wagner, chair of Food, Nutrition and Hospitality, immediately saw a kindred spirit.
“They saw that I was in chef attire and immediately they welcomed me in,” Ball said. “You’re welcomed with open arms by everyone.”
Ball currently works at the Catawba Island Club in Port Clinton and the Sunset Bistro in Bowling Green. She said her experience in the labs at Owens did a great job of preparing her for the real-world situations in a professional kitchen.
While continuing to work at the Catawba Island Club, Ball also plans to work as a lab assistant in the culinary program at Owens. By the spring of 2027, though, she plans on moving to Columbus to work for Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, where her uncle is an operating partner for Ocean Prime, a collection of high-end restaurants around the country.
First comes commencement, though, an experience she didn’t get when graduating from Sylvania Southview High School in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. And while finally getting her chance to walk across a stage is more than enough, being recognized as the outstanding graduate in her program is a fitting level of validation after her courageous decision to follow her heart into the kitchen.
“Receiving this award is validating, like I did do the right thing,” Ball said. “I stuck it out, I gave it my all, I did my best. It feels great.”