Senior project made the difference for Paradise Creek graduate

For his senior project, Marcus Bobier decided he would job-shadow Joe Marsh, chef at Nectar Restaurant in Moscow, where he learned cooking skills and — most importantly — how much he loved to cook.

Then everything clicked.

Marcus Bobier, son of Robert and Jennifer Bobier, will graduate on time from Paradise Creek Regional High School (PCRHS) in Moscow today, after dealing with hardships post-pandemic.

“I had lost all of my social skills because of the classes being online,” Marcus said.

COVID-19 hit during spring break of his freshman year, where he was attending Moscow High School at the time. Like many students and schools across the country, Marcus and Moscow High were navigating their academic programs as they went along, and it became hard for Marcus to grasp the material and also have the “discipline” to do his coursework.

Not too long after, Marcus was notified of being an at-risk student to graduate on time and was referred to PCRHS.

“He took a recovery credit science course in eighth grade at the high school and so his counselor referred (Marcus) and asked if he was open to going to an alternate high school,” Robert Bobier said.

Robert Bobier also said it was suggested based on how Marcus was coping with COVID-19.

“We know that if he had to go for another whole year of either hybrid learning or online school, that he didn’t have the discipline and we didn’t have the discipline to help him thrive in that environment,” Robert Bobier said.

Ruby Jackson, special education teacher and Title I coordinator at PCRHS, said Marcus saw a breakthrough at some point. She said he would always be “chugging along” and trying to figure it out, but once he had started working on his senior project through a class that she teaches, that’s when things really started changing for him.

“He job-shadowed the guy at Nectar and even toured LCSC (Lewis-Clark State College, in Lewiston) for their new culinary school program that started this year — but through that integration in the community, that’s when Marcus bloomed,” Jackson said. “After that his growth was exponential.”

She said that the minute he did his senior project, he started getting really good grades — either all A’s or B’s — and was almost a “whole different person.”

“It’s been a joy to see him be successful,” Jackson said. “It just clicked.”

Marcus is looking to attend LCSC through its culinary arts program.

Carrillo-Casas can be contacted at mcarrillo@dnews.com