Albuquerque Public Schools
A Shot of Opportunity at Outcomes Coffee
Transition Services opens coffee shop to provide on-the-job experience for its students.
There were chocolate-frosted cupcakes and colorful balloons to mark the official grand opening of Outcomes Coffee on Valentine's Day, but Jared Gonzalez and Isaiah Chavez didn’t let the hoopla get in the way of their duties.
The young men, clad in uncomfortable green aprons, worked together like a well-oiled machine, taking orders for French vanilla lattes and cherry lime Italian sodas. They prepared drinks and collected payments from customers, all while sporting friendly smiles.
Outcomes Coffee is a full-fledged coffee shop, open four days a week and serving nine different coffee beverages and Italian soda to APS employees at the Helen Fox Educational Complex off University Avenue. Drinks sell for $3.
But the shop is so much more.
Think of it as a training ground for APS students needing a little more help as they prepare to enter the real world. At Outcomes Coffee, they learn the basics of holding down a job in a real-world setting.
Beyond making the beverages and handling the cash register, they’re learning important soft skills, like dealing with difficult customers.
“We’re learning how to communicate with people,” Gonzalez said.
“And how to deal with angry customers,” Chavez chimed in.
“You have to have patience,” Gonzalez added.
Not that they get many angry customers at the Helen Fox facility, which houses Albuquerque Public Schools’ Transition Services. The program supports students who are 18 to 22 and who have graduated high school but still need support a they move into adulthood.
“My hope is that when they leave Outcomes Coffee that they are feeling a little more confident in themselves when they go out into the real world and have to interview for jobs and think about going to work every day,” said Aleisha Abeyta, a liaison with Transition Services and the manager of the coffee shop.
“They get an opportunity to practice their communication skills, to build their confidence,” she added. “And I'm just really hoping that this will better prepare them for working in the adult world.”
From dream to reality
Outcomes Coffee opened its doors at the Helen Fox Complex in 2024, but the idea was decades in the making. Abeyta said the staff at Transition Services had been wanting a secure space where it could provide real-life training opportunities for their students.
It wasn’t until Transition Services moved into the new Helen Fox complex in 2020 that the dream became feasible.
The coffee shop is housed in a nook near the building’s front door.
“Last semester was the first semester that we actually ran as a fully functional shop with students working,” Abeyta said. “It’s just been kind of a whirlwind. It’s been a lot of fun, and the students are really enjoying it.”
Because Outcomes Coffee provides on-the-job training for students, the state Department of Vocational Rehabilitation provides stipends to the students who work there.
The APS Education Foundation has also kicked in $11,700 to help Outcomes Coffee purchase equipment and supplies and to expand its offerings to Italian sodas.
Navigating the adult world
Outcomes Coffee is just a small part of Transition Services' work. It focuses on developing employment and independent living skills and connecting students with vocational and post-secondary training. Transition Services also teaches students about the government and community programs available to help them.
The program currently serves 80 students.
Students rotate in and out of the department's various programs. One semester, they might work in the coffee shop; the next, they might work in culinary arts.
Transition Services also has a program in which students can earn state certification in childcare. Several students who have obtained the certification have gone on to become educational assistants at childcare centers and schools.
Students have access to a STEM lab, a woodworking shop, a computer lab and mock interview rooms. Staff work with students on everything from job interviewing skills and financial literacy to online certifications and internship programs.
Chavez, one of the students staffing the counter at Outcomes Coffee on Friday, has also worked at the zoo and botanical gardens. He got the internship through the VAMOS Employment Preparation Program, which helps individuals with developmental disabilities.
“We’re trying to help them develop skills to navigate the adult world independently and safely,” said Michael de Timmerman, a community support liaison.
Tillie Tierney, who oversees Transition Services, is proud of the work her team does.
“The skills they learn here, they’re all transferable,” Tierney said, noting that even if they don’t become baristas, the skills they learn at Outcomes Coffee will benefit them in other endeavors.
She notes that they strive to create a business-like environment to help prepare students for what they’ll encounter.
“Students have the freedom to come here or not,” Tierney said. “It’s their choice, and it’s their choice to stay until they’re 22 or leave at 20.”
A fun job
But what do the students who work at Outcomes Coffee say about the experience?
“It is fun in there,” said Estevan Sigala, who enjoys making the coffee.
Gabryella Romero also says her favorite part of the job is making the coffee and serving it to customers, although she admitted to once forgetting to pull a lever down while making coffee and making a mess.
She learned from the error and hasn’t repeated it.
Romero also works at Explora every other Wednesday.
“I’m a coffee drinker,” she says. She prefers iced coffee but is getting used to hot coffee.