Shaler Area students double as baristas, bakers at Cafe 118

“Large iced coffee with a pump of vanilla!”

“A hot chocolate and two cinnamon rolls at the counter!”

Believe it or not, these are the phrases heard from classroom 118 in Shaler Area High School every Thursday and Friday morning. Since its opening in September, Cafe 118 has quickly become a hit among students who now form a line in the hall for their morning treat each week.

Christin Pintar, Shaler Area speech-language pathologist, and Gina Chmielewski, the high school’s life skills teacher, are the founders of the cafe and oversee the operation.

“The cafe is something that we wanted to create for a long time,” Pintar said. “We saw some other schools providing the opportunity and we wanted to do the same for our kids.”

The two women wrote a letter to the principal and the district’s director of special education at the time and got the okay to begin the cafe in the 2023-24 school year. From there, they created a business model, recruited students to run the coffee spot and hosted a soft opening on homecoming day in September. Pintar said that in the early months, they would sit down with student workers after each business day and reflect on what they could improve.

“At first it seemed very overwhelming, but it’s all good now,” Chmielewski said. “There are a bunch of jobs offered to students and life skills students. I feel like any students who worked at the cafe have found their niches. Everybody has found their place.”

Students can volunteer for a few different positions, such as working the drink line, stocking shelves, baking and manning the cash register. Any new volunteers can work multiple jobs until they find their groove behind the counter.

Not only does the cafe serve as a soft introduction to working for life skills students – with them learning to bake cookies, brownies and cinnamon rolls, making drinks, handling money and interacting with customers — it is also beneficial for other groups and clubs in the district. By the end of November, Cafe 118 was turning a profit.

“Once (Cafe 118) opened, the shop became self-sustaining and made a profit about two months in,” Chmielewski said. “We started making donations back to the district with profits in mid-November. We strictly donate to student groups.”

During its four-month lifespan, the cafe has slowly incorporated different members of the school to become a beloved district staple. Chmielewski said that to boost spirits for midterms, the school’s Positive Behavior Support team gave each student a ticket to use at Cafe 118 or the Titan Shop — 587 students were able to get free drinks during midterms. She added that the life skills classes are planning to partner with tech classes to help screen print shirts and other merchandise for the cafe.

Both women said that they had personally witnessed how Cafe 118 has brought students together and improved attendance at the school. Pintar said that she had seen a student represent the cafe by wearing a Cafe 118 shirt to a recent chorus concert. Chmielewski said that a student admitted that she wasn’t planning on attending school that day, but remembered that she was scheduled for a shift at the cafe and showed up to work.

Cafe 118 is open to students every Thursday and Friday from 7:30 until 10:30 a.m.