November 2010

Confidence with a capital C

by Vanessa on 5 November 2010

This blogging thing is a bit addictive.  It’s true, there are far worse things to become addicted to so I am now happily admitting my fascination and secret fondness for blogging. Alas, here’s blog number 3.

As we embark on recruiting our next group of trainees, we have been having many conversations about how we build confidence in young people who have been disengaged from families, school, employment and community.  We have talked this topic to within an inch of its life and I got to thinking that we might have been making this matter more complex than it needs to be.

As we live in a modern, interactive and electronic world, I did what any self respecting researcher would do and posted a message on Facebook.  I asked my nearest and dearest the simple question “What makes you feel confident?”

Hello Jo, who knocks out coffees with the best of them

by Sunisa on 29 November 2010

It’s time the STREAT team tips a virtual hat to our standout barista Jo, who cranks out stellar coffees at Melbourne Central. She’s amassed a following of folks eager for their cuppa produced from her capable hands. Let’s spend some time with the estimable Ms Mepham.  

Jo, how did you get into the coffee business?

I’ve been making coffees for almost 5 years now, but everything changed for me when I won the 2007 Mojo barista competition and they sent me to India to learn about their coffee supply chain.

I saw everything from the beans growing in the coffee fields, to the drying decks, where people use huge rakes to cull bad cherries out. It looks a bit like a Japanese Zen garden. I spent time in the packing facility where the beans were sorted, and the green beans were tipped into the big rough sacks that you see displayed in cafes. And we went to the coffee science lab in Bangalore, where I did cupping and learned about the process beans go through.

Seeing it all together like that made me I consider a career in coffee. I stopped thinking about being a barista as just a job. It gave me a much better appreciation for where coffee comes from, and how much work goes into every cup.