Between early mornings at Rolling Rock Club and late nights baking cakes, Summer Pavlik is shaping a future as sweet as her creations. Between working full-time at Rolling Rock and running her own baking business, Summer’s Sweets, she is already several steps into building her future career.
Pavlik’s school year has been really good so far, she mentioned. “I have one class at school, and then I go to Rolling Rock and do an eight-hour shift every day. I’m working there full time this year.” Full-time, being a five-day work week, Monday through Friday.
The position at Rolling Rock is part of her culinary apprenticeship program, which allows her to earn college credit while gaining real-world experience. “It’s kind of like work and college at the same time,” she explained. “Since I started [EWCTC] in ninth grade, they let me do a complete CO-OP this year. I don’t have to go to tech anymore, I just check in every once in a while.”
Having that title under her belt is a big accomplishment. “I’m the first one to ever do this program,” she said. Her time at EWCTC was shorter than most, as she excelled in ninth grade.
Rolling Rock Club, located in Ligonier, has become Summer’s second home. This is a special opportunity due to the exclusivity of the rural country club. She began working at the club over the summer, and in just four months, she has already logged around 600 hours toward her goal of 4,000, which she must reach to complete her apprenticeship.
Her journey in the culinary field began with baking. While at EWCTC, she specialized in desserts and often took charge of pastries for events through EWCTC, while her classmates focused on main courses. “I mostly baked, even though the class was cooking-based,” she said. “Anytime we had an event, I was in charge of the desserts.”
Her love for baking grew into her business, Summer’s Sweets, which has gained a loyal following in the community. “I started when I was fourteen, baking for family and friends,” she said. “Then it just spread by word of mouth. Now I get tons of orders from people I don’t even know, for weddings, baby showers, and everything.”
While her current focus is finishing her apprenticeship and college coursework, she already has her eyes set on the future. “After I finish [my] apprenticeship and graduate from college, I want to start my own bakery,” she said. “Probably somewhere around here, because we don’t really have a bakery like mine,” Pavlik explains. Local bakeries are very diverse, having items like bread and pastries, just to name a few. A bakery like Pavlik’s would be quite exclusive, being only subject to cakes, cookies, and cupcakes. “It would be nice to pick a place where there isn’t much competition.”
Summer’s talents go far beyond baking. She is also a decorated competitive shooter who continues to compete in trap and skeet. “I still shoot competitively,” she said. “I just placed first in the state for skeet, and I’m still waiting on results for trap.”
Her accomplishments speak for themselves. Pavlik has placed first in the PIAA multiple times for both trap and skeet and ranked seventeenth in the nation for women’s skeet over the summer. Her team has also won local cooking contests and even participated in an MRE challenge, where they created three courses using military ration boxes. She has also been recognized in baking competitions, earning first place at the state ProStart cake decorating competition one year, and second place two years in a row after that.
COVID was the birth of new hobbies for many. For Pavlik, that’s what pushed her into baking. “During COVID, I got really bored and started watching cake videos. I thought, ‘It can’t be that hard.’ So I tried it and realized I could actually do it,” she explains. “I just kept practicing and started to really enjoy it.”
What began as a pandemic hobby quickly turned into both a passion and a paycheck. “Rolling Rock pays well,” she said. “And I still take cake orders on the side, so it’s kind of like having two jobs.”
Pavlik balances her busy schedule with ease, managing her apprenticeship, college work, shooting competitions, and her business. Her strong work ethic and positivity show through in everything she does.
Whether behind the counter at Rolling Rock or designing cakes for Summer’s Sweets, her passion is the recipe that keeps her on track.
