iCook After School offers hands-on cooking adventures that enhance math, science, and leadership skills! Founded by two visionary women, iCook has expanded from a single Chicago school in 2014 to hundreds of schools across 15 states. Our themed curricula celebrate diversity, foster creativity, and prioritize education, all while cultivating executive function and social-emotional skills through cooking and STE(A)M activities. During our cooking classes, students will learn many culinary skills, such as how to chop, dice, peel, slice, strain, core, bake, whisk, fold and mix. We teach how to read recipes and how to measure ingredients. Students will also practice their math and problem-solving skills. Delicious and healthy recipes are a key ingredient of every cooking class. Our instructors discuss nutrition in a fun way so that students get excited about nutrition and healthy food overall. Cultural awareness is an important part of our program. Our communities are ethnically diverse, so we carefully select recipes that expose students to the world cuisine.

Learn the art of persuasion! Students work in rotating groups and practice their debating skills in a supportive environment, including developing arguments, issuing rebuttals, providing examples, rebuilding their case and summarizing points of view. Students learn to think on their feet and enhance their public-speaking skills, gaining self-confidence in the process.