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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

CONTACT:
Jessica Mara
Public Relations Associate
Institute of ¹ú²ú¸£Àû Education
(212) 847-0731
jmara@ice.edu

NEW YORK (March 1, 2017) - The Institute of ¹ú²ú¸£Àû Education (ICE)  of the 2017 #¹ú²ú¸£ÀûVoice Scholarship Challenge. ICE partnered with celebrity chefs and food stars Marcus Samuelsson, Ted Allen, Donatella Arpaia and Duff Goldman to challenge the world to enter and win more than $212,000 in scholarships to attend one of six diploma programs at ICE.

More than 250 entrants shared their inventive and exciting culinary voices — and the world responded, with the videos garnering a total of 1.8 million votes and viewsto determine the finalists in each category. An exclusive panel of ICE instructors, including James Beard Award-winning chefs David Waltuck and Michael Laiskonis, selected the winners of the full and partial scholarships to attend ICE's award-winning career programs.

Through their entry videos, the winners shared their unique stories and goals. From launching an artisan bakery to opening a culinary school to empowering women through food, their ambitions were truly inspiring. Though the winners hail from countries across the globe — United States, Guatemala, Venezuela, to name a few — notably, all three winners of Pastry & Baking Arts scholarships call Nigeria home. While some had previous culinary training and experience, others will commence their culinary or hospitality career paths at ICE. Perhaps most importantly, each of the winners demonstrated creativity, passion and a dream to share their culinary voices with the world.

Select winners and their stories can be found below. For more information and a full list of winners from this year's challenge, please contact Jessica Mara at jmara@ice.edu.

 - Ariel D. Jr. from Los Angeles, California (Cake Decorating: Partial Scholarship Winner) - Ariel is a trained baker at Wolfgang Puck's restaurant Spago in Beverly Hills, California. He aspires to become a pastry-chef instructor so that he can contribute to his community and use his knowledge and experience to train the next generation of pastry chefs.

 - Sangeeta K. from Ridgefield, Connecticut (Hospitality Management: Partial Scholarship Winner) â€“ Sangeeta was a stay-at-home mom for years before she began working as a cook at Chick-fil-A, where she is now a supervisor. Her goal is to obtain the management and hospitality skills necessary to take her to the next level in her career.

 - Rory S. from Beaver, Pennsylvania (Bread Baking: Full Scholarship Winner) â€“ Rory is a cook who dreams of opening his own artisan bread business to share his delicious breads with the world. He is confident that ICE will provide the skills, techniques and networking opportunities to achieve this dream.

 - Oyin A. from Lagos, Nigeria (Pastry & Baking Arts: Full Scholarship Winner) â€“ Oyin began baking when she was fourteen years old and currently runs her own cake business in Lagos, Nigeria. With her home country in economic turmoil, Oyin hopes to expand her business into a pastry shop to help reduce unemployment in her community.

 - Harry K. from Guatemala City, Guatemala (Bread Baking: Partial Scholarship Winner) â€“ Harry graduated from a culinary school in Guatemala City and is ready to master bread baking with the industry leaders at ICE. He aspires to of help his community by opening his own bakery and providing employment opportunities.

 - Yali R. from Brooklyn, NY (¹ú²ú¸£Àû Arts: Partial Scholarship Winner) â€“ Yali believes food is a dialogue between innovation and tradition. His goal is to put Israeli cuisine on the international culinary map — which he will achieve by learning the proper cooking techniques at ICE. For Yali, thoughtfully prepared food speaks louder than words.

 - Maria P. from Pembroke Pines, Florida (¹ú²ú¸£Àû Management: Partial Scholarship Winner)– Maria makes her very own ice cream from scratch using simple and fresh ingredients. She dreams of opening her own ice cream shop to share her creative flavor pairings with the community. Maria hopes to give back by donating a portion of the proceeds to help fund cancer research.

About the Institute of ¹ú²ú¸£Àû Education
The Institute of ¹ú²ú¸£Àû Education (ICE) is one of the largest and most diverse culinary schools in the world. Established in 1975, ICE offers award-winning six to 13-month career training programs in ¹ú²ú¸£Àû Arts, Pastry & Baking Arts, estaurant & ¹ú²ú¸£Àû Management, Hospitality Management, Bread Baking and CakeDecorating â€“ with more than 13,000 successful alumni, many of whom are leaders in the industry. ICE also offers continuing education for culinary professionals, hosts more than 500 special events each year and is home to one of the world's largest recreational cooking, baking and wine programs with more than 26,000 students annually. In 2015, marking the school's 40th anniversary, ICE moved to a new, modern 74,000-square-foot facility at Brookfield Place in downtown Manhattan, designed for inspiration, creativity and community. Visit us at  or join us on ,  and  @iceculinary to find your culinary voiceâ„¢

CONTACT:
Jessica Mara
Public Relations Associate
Institute of ¹ú²ú¸£Àû Education
(212) 847-0731
jmara@ice.edu