On Aug. 26, 2009, Nicholas Academic Center students visited MacArthur Park’s Mama’s Hot Tamales Café, an economic development project aimed at mentoring limited-income entrepreneurs who may not have access to the skills and resources they need to start a business. Mama’s Hot Tamales Café has been praised both locally and nationwide— and is fully supported by the city of Los Angeles— for providing the leadership that has helped the local community overcome decades of economic, residential, educational, environmental, and recreational disinvestment. The Café’s program director, Sandi “Mama” Romero, taught the students how to cook tamales while also explaining the program’s cultural and economic benefit to the surrounding community. The students also visited Mama’s Small Business Kitchen Incubator in Pasadena, a licensed food preparation and education area for those starting a business. An economic development project of the Episcopal Housing Alliance, the Incubator and Café help stimulate the local economy by utilizing local resources. Like the partnership between the Performing Arts Center and the Academic Center, the field trip to Mama’s Tamales Café and Small Business Incubator is designed to not only bring together two programs that the Henry T. Nicholas III Foundation fully supports, but to teach the students about successful entrepreneurs through the results of hard work.