Sometimes the right learning environment can change everything.

For Courtney Irwin, that place was a youth development center in Salinas, California.

Tonight, she shares her brief but spectacular take on how cooking and community helped her to find her way.

My earliest memory of cooking, I believe I was probably about 12 years old.

I had told my dad I was like, oh, I want to go to Olive Cardin.

They have chicken Alfredo.

And he was like, we have so many kids in the house.

We're going to make it at home.

And we made it for the whole house.

We probably made like five pounds of pasta.

And I was like, oh, I like to do this.

My childhood growing up in Salinas, it was rough. I ran into a lot of problems in school. I was

constantly ditching. I was bullying. And I, when I did make friends, they were not the best of friends.

It leaded me to getting into trouble.

First I ended up expelled, and then I ended up on probation.

So the person who brought me to the Rancho Scello, his name was David.

He was my truancy probation officer at the time.

I would always bring banana bread and cookies.

He was like, you know what,

I think I found a good, the perfect place for you to be where you could bake and get away from

all the people that you're interacting with now. I definitely think by coming to the ranch,

it stopped me from continuing to get myself in trouble where I would have ended up in jail.

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