VERO BEACH — What does it take to build a house? How do you code a drone to fly autonomously? What are the steps to creating double-sided buffets at banquets and weddings?
Students will soon be able to learn these skills and more at the Youth Guidance Mentoring Academy, located in downtown Vero Beach. Thanks to a $2.3 million renovation, the academy now has classrooms with instructors teaching drone technology, audio and video engineering, construction trades and cooking fundamentals.
“This is something we’ve been working toward for a very long time. This was always the vision of the board to renovate this space,” said Phil Barnes, executive director of the Youth Guidance Mentoring Academy. “It’s really a full circle moment and a culmination of hard work and care about what we’re doing for our kids and trying to give them the best space possible. We’re giving youth the highest quality instruction to get them where they need to be whether it’s from a chef, electrician or engineer. Now, we have a space where we can really get to work.”
Youth Guidance Mentoring Academy hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday, Nov. 3 at its campus located at 1028 20th Place, Vero Beach. Attendees toured the 8,600 square foot renovated space with new classrooms including a teaching kitchen, construction lab, STEAM lab and an audio and video editing lab, along with an administrative wing.
Youth Guidance’s annual pre-apprenticeship program will be held in the construction lab. Classes will be taught by Construction Trades Director James Buttonow, who has 40 years of carpentry experience and taught at Apex Technical Training School in Manhattan.
“(The new classroom) allows us to get a better use of different types of equipment,” Buttonow said. “We were able to get better equipment through all our supporters – Lowe’s Home Improvement, Home Depot, East Coast Lumber and Supply Co., our local suppliers. Now they come in and see this building and have a lot more trust in what our program is doing.”
In the pre-apprenticeship program, students will learn carpentry, electrical, plumbing and welding, along with heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Welding sessions are held offsite at the Treasure Coast Technical College.
Students will also learn how to use a chop saw, table saw, jig saw, along with fundamentals such as plumbing a house, or connecting residential pipes, along with building miniature houses.
“They actually draw the plans on a blueprint. They create a materials list just like any construction professional would, and then they build a house on a smaller scale,” Barnes said. “They cut every single stud. They cut the roof, and basically the end product is a scaled down version of a real house. They learn all the steps involved in constructing a house.”
The culinary arts program will be taught by Brannon Soileau, a retired professional chef with 38 years of experience. Soileau graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, where he later taught for 10 years.
Soileau also taught at The Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio, Texas. The veteran chef has owned five restaurants that encompass everything from fine dining, Italian bistro and bagel shops.
Soileau said the curriculum for his course will be very intense. He’s looking for students who are hungry to learn about cooking and devour an opportunity that could change their life.
“I’m not messing around. This is not home economics. This is the real deal,” Soileau said. “There are disciplines all day long. Everybody is responsible for something all day long. It’s very intense, but if they stick with it and they enjoy what they’re doing, the bug will bite them.”
Soileau will lead a pilot culinary course with eight students for seven months. Soileau will instruct the students in the teaching kitchen at Youth Guidance Mentoring Academy.
“The students will learn cooking, grilling, roasting, pan frying, submerge poaching, sautéing, pasta making, all the fundamentals and how you perform those tasks,” Soileau said. “Then we’ll go into banquets and catering. We’ll have action stations where people are cooking, cutting, making quesadillas, grilling fajitas, putting it out on a professional buffet and serving it.”
Soileau said teaching students the fundamentals of cooking is his way of giving back. The veteran chef said coming to Vero Beach was special.
“There isn’t a quiet time in my kitchen. You’ve got to mirror your attitude, reputation and professionalism. It all has to start at the top and that’s me. I don’t have an assistant,” said Soileau, who has lived across the globe and opened the Culinary Institute of America, Singapore.
Richard Butler, a retired scientist who is the instructor for the drone program, said students will be able to create a brand marketing campaign and conduct data collection on the drones. The students will fly the drones through obstacle courses, time each one and decide which techniques work.
The students will compete in the annual drone competition on April 18, 2026, at Vero Beach High School. Youth Guidance Mentoring Academy will host the event, which will have up to 12 teams from Indian River County participating.
“There’s two stages to the competition. There’s piloting which is showcasing the student’s ability to pilot the drone through the obstacle course, and then there’s autonomous flight which is having the student code the drone so that it can fly on its own,” Barnes said. “It’s teaching the kids piloting but also working in computer science.”
Butler is a former human resources professional who hired and trained scientists and engineers. Butler, who is also the founder of the nonprofit Next Generation Leadership Academy, said he works with students of all backgrounds, including those from underserved communities, ensuring them access and information to engineering opportunities.
Students at Youth Guidance Mentoring Academy will also get to participate in an arts classes as part of the STEAM program, where they can learn pottery, painting and making abstract art. The students will also be able to do music engineering, create podcasts, mix audio and more in the audio and video engineering lab.
The audio and engineering lab was created via a partnership with the Youth Guidance Mentoring Academy and the Gifford Academy for the Performing Arts. Charles Casey Lunceford, executive director for the performing arts organization, said the studio will be open for the Youth Guidance and Gifford Academy students.
“We’ll teach them about microphone storage, wires, how to put things away, how to mix live sound, how to do the mini synthesizers and do general podcasting,” Lunceford said. “We’ll teach students all these different aspects of music recording.”
Photos by Nick Samuel
