“Luminary’s the best thing that could’ve happened to me”

This morning I had the wonderful opportunity to talk to one of Luminary’s apprentices, currently one month into her six-month long apprenticeship in the bakery.

During our team reflection time earlier today, she expressed her thankfulness for the abundance of love she has around her, which excited me to learn more about her experiences and incredible positivity.

She began her journey with Luminary about a year ago as part of the course, which she said has flown by extremely fast. Looking back over the past 12 months, she described her amazement at how much the organisation has grown and transformed as well as her inspiration by everything Luminary has achieved in such a short time.

Transitioning from being part of the women’s course to becoming a part-time apprentice has been rather a challenge for her but having volunteered in the kitchen every so often has helped her prepare for her role now. She expressed to me that no matter her role, she has always felt part of the Luminary family.

When I questioned what she enjoyed most about being part of the team, she shared her love for Luminary’s continuous innovation and space to challenge oneself. She told me that for years she’s been looking for an environment to discover her creative self and has found it in Luminary.

“Self-motivated or not, I can always be here,” she said to me, “I can be myself in an inspiring, supportive place. It all works beautifully.”

If she could talk to a woman just beginning the course with Luminary about her experiences she would say,

“Get ready to be embraced. Get ready to be challenged. Take the time to dig deep to uncover the creative you. Trust the environment that it will impact you and bring out the best of your expressive self.”

As an apprentice of the bakery, she would love to continue to grow in confidence and creative experimentation. She takes joy in discovering interesting flavour combinations, such as chocolate and chili, but also adores making Luminary’s famous apple blondies and brownies.

She is thankful for the endless support and encouragement from Ellie, our business manager, Aine, one of our full-time bakers and Alice, founder of Luminary. She conveyed how grateful she is for them always having time for her and continuously giving love and guidance throughout her time in the bakery as though they were her sisters.

To wrap up, I asked her what aspirations she might have for the future of Luminary. She shared her vision to open multiple bakeries, each as unique in quality and dedication as the first, simply on a larger scale and therefore able to grow organically as one influential organisation. She’d like to impact people all over by sharing Luminary’s story through our detailed, visionary handbook.

“Luminary’s the best thing that could’ve happened to me,” she concluded. “It gave me hope in humanity again.”