Huntsville City Schools and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center have a new partnership to help students in the Culinary Arts Program.

This partnership gives students an opportunity to work with skilled chefs in a professional kitchen.

"We get to come into this kitchen and work with these chefs, and it's just a really great experience," a second-year student, Reagan Hall, said.

Hall is a senior at Huntsville High School, and this is her second year in the Culinary Arts Academy. She already works at a restaurant as a server and hopes to get into baking one day.

The sous-chef at the Space and Rocket Center said this program will help students like Hall be well rounded when she graduates.

"You'll learn mass production. You'll learn, you know, execution. You'll learn the client expects the same thing every time they have that product," Allen Noble, the Rocket Center's sous-chef, said.

Noble is a graduate of the Culinary Arts Academy and hopes he can help students reach their goals while using top-notch facilities at the Space and Rocket Center. In fact, that's how this partnership first came about. The school system needed a new home for the academy, and the Space and Rocket Center wanted to help with workforce development.

"I'm extremely excited to mentor these bright, young minds and take them to the future. I mean, it's a great opportunity," Noble said.

The partnership has been in the works for a couple of years. Mayor Tommy Battle congratulated the center and school district for bringing a vision to life and helping students learn a trade.