Teaching the next generation to succeed

What do you do when you’re 65 years old and pondering your retirement? You might consider taking up golf, or tennis, volunteering, or traveling the world, right? 

Maybe, but none of those ideas were ever on Greg Nemchick’s Bingo card. 

The dream becomes a goal

Instead, the CEO of Workplace Furnishings, a national office furniture distributor, decided to return to school and pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a professional chef. 

“When I was about 5 years old, my mother started cooking and baking with me,” he says. “I absolutely loved it, but my father didn’t favor his son being in the kitchen. There was always that push and pull around it and as time went on, he encouraged me to pursue a business career, which I did. But the desire never left me. I’d always go to restaurants and wonder what was happening in the kitchen. I’d even ask maître d’s if I could look in and see. It was always my interest.”

Once he retired, Nemchick started cooking and baking at home and inviting people over to sample the food. He says everyone would tell him they loved his cooking and that he should have been a chef. 

Scholarship helps pay for education

In 2021, he enrolled at Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland County Community College to begin his studies in the culinary arts. However, despite his successful business career, he started feeling the pinch of living on a fixed income and worried about how much he was borrowing to pay for his education. At around the same time, he’d read about the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s partnerships with the Rachael Ray Foundation and Yum-O Organization and applied for a grant. To his surprise, Yum-O presented him with $5,000 in scholarship money that helped pay for his second year of school.

Since 2007, The Yum-o! Organization and Rachael Ray Foundation have awarded more than $1 million in financial support to students. To date, over 260 of their scholarship winners have gone on to pursue industry-related degrees and work in top restaurants and hotel kitchens as chefs, mixologists, and bakers.

“It really did help pay for my education, which was so critical and important,” he says. “In my essay, I told them my goal was to use my education, and I am! Frankly, I didn't think I had much of a chance when I applied but was so thrilled to receive it. 

“It was daunting at first to go to school with a lot of 20-year-olds,” he continues, “but they were so accepting of me.  They looked at me as a sort of grandparent figure, but they also saw I had some skills, so the learning became a little bit of a competitive thing. You know, could those young people keep up with the old guy and vice versa?”

It turns out that the respect and camaraderie was more important to him than he knew. Because of it, Nemchick, now 68, received his associate’s degree from Westmoreland last May and has decided to continue his education. He is now pursuing his bachelor’s degree in psychology and plans to become a culinary instructor. He’s currently serving as a lab tech at Westmoreland, prepping the food used during classroom culinary demonstrations, and teaching continuing education courses in culinary arts to the community. In addition, he’s started his own business as a personal chef.

Lesson plan for life

Dr. Cindy Komarinski, program director of the college’s culinary arts school, says Nemchick is a great addition to her team.

“Greg brings great experience and knows how to get things done right,” she says. “He’s very motivating and is always willing to go the extra mile. He’s a great example to the students of what it takes to succeed. We provide the education, but what you get out of it is up to you. He’s also showing everyone that age is not a barrier; you can still be relevant even after retirement.”

Komarinski adds that students can learn a lot from him, especially from his energy and enthusiasm. “He does whatever it takes to make things happen,” she says.

Nemchick says his second chapter has reinvigorated his life and he’s excited about the future.

“Before this, I sat at home asking myself, ‘Is this all there is?’ Now, I feel better than I did 20 years ago. I'm finally doing the thing I always wanted to do. I think back to that poem The Road Not Taken. I'm one of those few people who gets to go back to the fork in the road and take the other path. That's what this has done for me.”