Higher Education Builds America

For Janaja Harris, cooking is both a career and a calling. She founded her catering company, Fires Kitchen, in 2020 to feed people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sometimes she offers free food to those who are hungry on the streets of Allentown, Pennsylvania, calling out, “Hey, do you need a plate?”

Harris built her skills at Northampton Community College, recently graduating with an associate degree in culinary arts. Her generosity and entrepreneurship drew front-page attention in February from a local newspaper, The Morning Call, which recognized her as one of Lehigh Valley’s Most Influential People.

Harris tried catering after she was laid off from a restaurant job. At one of her early gigs, she churned out meals for 120 people at a local park. Guest after guest complimented her food.

“I decided to take Fires Kitchen as something serious. I decided to say, ‘Let’s go to culinary school.’”

She was drawn to Northampton’s program for its community involvement and its record of hosting famous chefs such as Emeril Lagasse. Her path to a degree at the public college took some twists and turns, including a stint cooking at a Disney theme park. But her Northampton faculty mentor, Chef Domenico Lombardo, stuck with her until she finished.

“You’re not in it alone,” he told her.

Now Harris sees herself teaching young people about cooking. “I want to be the culinary Miss Frizzle,” she said, citing the fictional teacher from The Magic School Bus book and television series.

Read here to learn more about Harris and Northampton.

Northampton Community College, with about 9,000 students in Bethlehem, has been building Pennsylvania and America since it opened in 1967.

This is higher education growing business and community leaders.

They build homes, stitch fleece blankets for people in homeless shelters, bring holiday gifts to children, visit nursing homes, and assemble picnic tables and Adirondack chairs for a local dog park.

Catawba College students have done all these things and more as part of a highly organized program called Volunteer Catawba that began with a church grant in 1996.

Colleges and universities around the country promote the virtues of community service. But Catawba—a private liberal arts college in Salisbury, North Carolina—takes this commitment to the next level. Its efforts have won national recognition multiple times.

The college asks students to give a minimum of five hours of service each academic year, and many give more. The college points volunteers to organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, the Salisbury Symphony, the American Red Cross, and numerous others.

Recently, 689 volunteers from Catawba’s students, faculty, and staff participated in an annual day of service. They teamed up with 31 community organizations on a wide range of activities, including tutoring and mentoring, food bank and shelter support, park cleanups, outreach to the elderly, and beautification projects, including one shown in the picture above.

Volunteers from Catawba’s science programs also worked with Salisbury High School students with hands-on activities in STEM.

Read more about the history of Volunteer Catawba and the 2025 day of service.

Catawba, with about 1,400 students, has been building North Carolina and America since it was founded in 1851.

This is higher education strengthening our communities.