Juliana De Sena, culinary teacher, has been teaching at JHS since 2022. De Sena is best known for her positive attitude while teaching, which is observed by her culinary students. 

Through teaching her students to persevere through problems, De Sena has learnt herself to work through problems. 

“She always taught us to be more positive if something went wrong, and she always taught us  ways to fix stuff if we made a mistake,” Ryland Pezzuti, senior, said.

In her free time, De Sena enjoys outdoor activities such as rollerblading and slacklining. 

“I like rollerblading, I like to do any sort of outdoor workout: pilates, yoga,” De Sena said.

De Sena was born in New York, and moved around a lot in her childhood. When she was 14 years old, she moved to Jupiter, where she has lived ever since. De Sena attended UCF where she studied hospitality. 

“I always knew I wanted to do something with hospitality,” De Sena said.

Before becoming a culinary teacher, she worked with event planning/catering, restaurants and hotels.

“I’ve always enjoyed it [cooking and baking], but I never really had the time for it,” De Sena said.

De Sena enjoys coming into work everyday to do something she loves: cooking and baking. 

De Sena teaches all grades and culinary levels one through four. Throughout the years, she really gets to know her students. Much of the students and staff think of her as a kind, energetic teacher who always tries to stay positive. 

“She is probably one of my favorite teachers I’ve had at Jupiter, and she’s very nice and fun,” Pezzuti said. “She puts good effort into doing labs so we can cook and participate.” 

Her students appreciate all of her effort and positivity when teaching and doing labs. While creating labs for her students to do, she incorporates her ideas, as well as her students’.

“I think my class stands out because it’s very creative, and I like when my students can kind of bring in their own personalities into my classroom,” De Sena said.

Last year, De Sena and her students entered a baking competition. This was the first time she has done anything like that. 

“The first year that I started here, we got second place in the bake off competition at the fair,” De Sena said.

Through her guidance, students were able to make such an accomplishment despite not having any prior experience.

If you have a passion for cooking, her class is a great way to gain experience. She is very appreciative of her students, and she loves to watch them grow as chefs. 

Being in her class will help grow students’ passion for cooking through her guidance and teaching.

“Treat others the way you want to be treated and be kind,” De Sena said.