staff photo by alexander simone
CB Bakery intern Michaela Warnke prepares a pan to pour in her cinnamon roll dough. She started earlier this month as an intern at Kansas State University’s baking sciences program.
Staff writer
Michaela Warnke came from a town of 33,000, but quickly acclimated to small-town life in Marion.
“My mom is from a small town in Nebraska of 300 people,” she said. “My grandparents lived close to me, so I’d constantly go see them. My grandfather always wanted to bake, and baking in a small town was something natural I fell in love with.”
Warnke is the new intern with CB Baked Goods, and a senior in Kansas State University’s baking sciences program.
Marion and her hometown of Kearney, Nebraska, are different, but staying in the Midwest was an advantage of her internship.
Warnke said she appreciates staying this side of the Mississippi River after a visit to her sister in Florida last year.
“I’m from the Midwest and it’s where I was raised,” she said. “It’s where I want to be.”
One of her interests in Marion so far is the architecture of buildings.
“I don’t like that concrete look,” she said. “Having historic buildings to look at has been awesome.”
While friends were going for jobs at brands like Nabisco and Kellogg’s, her passion was a more personal setting.
“I did interviews with companies and they wanted me to do quality assurance,” she said. “The passion was not there.”
For Warnke, finding out many of her peers didn’t want to enter the bakery business was a surprise.
“Growing up I wanted to own a bakery,” she said. “You meet people in your major who don’t have the same dream and it’s like, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize the majority of people don’t want to.’ ”
Warnke’s college classes helped prepare her to work in the bakery.
“You get the best of both worlds, to figure out what you do and don’t like,” she said.
She said she loves to make cookies.
“There are so many different kinds and variations,” she said. “It’s always a fun thing to bake, and easy, too. Anyone can bake cookies.”