Education & Classes in Parma Heights

Grape guru and oenophile Marianne Frantz, who holds a diploma from London's Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) and who earned an Advanced Sommelier qualification from the Court of Master Sommeliers, founded American Wine School in 2002. She and her school have gone on to shepherd more than 10,000 sippers through classes, tastings, and grape-lookalike contests. Marianne, along with her knowledgeable staff, impart their vino wisdom in classes that range from the basic Wine 101 to the more extensive WSET certification courses. The school's classes and special events have even spilled into seven different states, teaching tongues across the nation to swirl, sniff, and taste the adult beverages and analyze why drinking wine while doing taxes is a bad idea.

Michelle Alpern, an avid swimmer and Red Cross-certified lifeguard since high school, is the founder of the Kids and Infant Safety Swim (KISS) Swim Program. Tailoring lessons to each student’s needs, Michelle and staff lead sessions for infants, toddlers, kids, and adults, focusing on the swim-float-swim method in a fun, safe, and nurturing environment. She specializes in childhood education, and her training includes more than 175 hours of pool instruction, child psychology and physiology, and CPR and AED certifications.

Behind a real bar, the instructors at Toledo Bartending School mix cocktails with finesse and expertise, running through barroom staples and cutting-edge recipes as students look on in bewildered anticipation. After the lectures and demonstrations, the metaphorical table turns, and students man the bar to master the skills necessary to serve drinks professionally. This is the regular scene during the school's 32-hour bartending course, a professional-caliber program that covers everything potential mixologists will need to know to sling drinks in the wild.

The course breaks down the ingredients of 75 specialty drinks and cocktails—including manhattans and martinis—as well as beer and wine information, customer-service techniques, and responsible alcohol service. The school also adheres to the Anheuser-Busch Beertender and Guinness Perfect Pour training programs. The program can be completed in four weeks, with weekend classes to accommodate schedules that are busier than a fireworks salesman on Woodrow Wilson’s birthday. Upon completion of the course, students can take advantage of Toledo Bartending School's job-placement program, which has landed students employment at venues such as Ritz Carlton hotels and resorts, McCormick & Schmick's, and Embassy Suites.

"If you make it, you will taste it" is the motto founders Julie Fabing Burleson and Suzy Vinson Nettles envisioned when they created Young Chefs Academy. In addition to giving youngsters hands-on exposure to culinary techniques, kitchen safety, eating etiquette, and table setting, the academy's philosophy ensures that kids like 10-year-old former veggie-hater Camille gain an appreciation for healthy homemade cuisine. With centers in more than 10 states, Young Chefs Academy enriches growing minds ages 3–18 with engaging cooking classes, camps, and birthday parties that impart valuable life skills, such as self-reliance and how to trick a younger sibling into doing the dishes.

Twenty-two years ago, Pam Burton counted herself as part of the population of people with two left feet. She struggled through every move during ballroom-dance classes and felt there must be another way to learn the moves. Not being the type of person to wait around for others to take the reins, she decided to reinvent ballroom-dance lessons so everyone—including that two-left-feet group—could easily understand how their feet were supposed to move.

The casual atmosphere inside 2 Left Feet Dance Studio finds students of all experience levels working through dance steps in a group, semi-private, or private setting. Once a month, people can test their newly acquired skills during a ballroom dance with pizza, pop, and a half-hour lesson.

Colors & Bottles' founder Jessica Burley and her band of talented local artists are dedicated to supporting local emerging talent and businesses through art instruction held at nearby venues. Their resident artists travel to local eateries and art galleries, where they teach students of all skill levels to fashion dimensional masterpieces through step-by-step instruction. They also kindle creativity during private parties held at the location of your choice, asking only that the destination be outfitted with enough tables, chairs, and paint-by-numbers templates of the Sistine Chapel ceiling for all invitees. Colors & Bottles has received a nod for their engagingly creative events on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and within the pages of the Columbus Dispatch.