

She says that while bartending on a recent Saturday night, she met the creative director for a major advertising agency who was so impressed he asked to see her résumé. “We’re all very intelligent and motivated to go on to great careers-people see that, see the value of hiring one of us to come into their homes,” says CBA’s Luo. Columbia Bartending’s students, too, are connected with a roster of private gigs-birthdays, housewarming parties, Shabbat dinners-often for well-heeled alums. (“Have you ever wanted to mix cocktails while chatting with Princeton Alumni?” the signup form asks). Princeton’s Formal Services Agency likewise certifies students with TiPS while linking them with bartending opportunities at alumni events. Dartmouth also has a TiPS certification program, which “gives students the skills they need to intervene with their peers in social situations to prevent alcohol-related incidents.” (For an extra $40, students can purchase a bartending kit.) Brown’s bartending courses are in partnership with their Student Agencies, which offers placement at the students-only Grad Center Bar, in operation since 1969.
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Meanwhile, Penn offers three very brief courses designed to provide the basics of bartending: one on alcohol safety, one on mixology and one that includes both of these plus TiPS bartender certification, a program designed to teach future bartenders how to prevent underage drinking and curtail dangerous behavior. “The idea is that, the more you know, the more you will think about something and care about it being done well, and this thoughtfulness permeates all parts of the experience,” says Clark-Ginnetti. (In Connecticut, individuals need only be 18 to serve drinks.) Most students in the class are currently part-time bartenders or aim to be. If it sounds tiresome, that’s hardly the case-students learn about cocktail history, barroom vernacular, creating ambiance and crafting the drinks themselves.
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It’s free to all undergraduates and run in collaboration with the Alcohol and Other Drugs Harm Reduction Initiative (AODHRI). Now in its eighth semester, the current iteration is taught by John Clark-Ginnetti, who also owns 116 Crown, a New Haven cocktail bar where classes are held. “We’re trying to see what we can do to make sure underage students understand what a drink is supposed to look and taste like.” Since at least the 1970s, Yale has hosted a number of various bartending schools. “We know underaged people are drinking,” said Robert Sullivan, director of Yale Catering, in 2013. Whether academic or extracurricular, today most of these Ivy-sponsored courses seem designed to help students more thoughtfully consider how, why and what they drink.

Focused less on cutting-edge technique than foundational skills, students familiarize themselves with spirit flavor profiles and how they best pair with modifiers and mixers. Its textbook, Bartending 101: The Basics of Mixology, has reportedly sold a half-million copies since its initial publication in 1985. But today, classes are held at the school-owned, student-run Cambridge Queen’s Head Pub. Taught since 1964, the course’s final exam once consisted of students forming a circle and mixing drinks for the person to their right until someone passed out. “The Harvard Bartending Course is a branch of a nonprofit student-run organization called The Harvard Student Agencies, which has a main goal of providing students with meaningful business experience,” says Marcus Miller, a “first-year” (in Harvard parlance) and the current manager of the course.
