In Room 205 at Parkade Elementary School, 21 giggling fifth-graders imagine a dream date: dinner with the president.The students explain to their instructor, Sky Jimenez, that they would wear nicer clothes and behave better than if they were joining friends at Taco Bell or Golden Corral. A White House dinner would include no funny games, Jimenez says — no taking the top off the salt shaker, no sticking your finger in the food to taste it.

After all, Secret Service agents would be watching. “What would they do if you did something wrong?” Jimenez asks. “Shoot you!” one student shouts. “Not shoot you,” Jimenez says, “but kick you out.” This is the 16th year Jimenez has been teaching Parkade fifth-graders proper dinner etiquette and other social skills.

She leads the “Celebrate the Dream” program every January and February in recognition of Black History Month, teaching students about past civil rights leaders and connecting them with black professionals in Columbia — and preparing them to dine with those mentors.

“She’s taught us manners, how to treat others with respect,” said fifth-grader Mishee Gray, 11.

Jimenez, who worked as a counselor at Parkade for 25 years, assigns students a mentor to job-shadow for two hours this month. The City of Columbia Human Rights Commission funded the program this year, Jimenez said, at a cost of $1,100, mostly for materials.

Jimenez teaches the students dining skills because the “Celebrate the Dream” program will end with a luncheon Wednesday at Columbia College, featuring guest speaker Rolando Barry, who has mentored children as executive director of the Mid-Missouri Highsteppers performance group for 31 years.

He plans to ask the mentors in attendance, “What are we mentoring?”

“It’s more than go out and play and have lunch, but listening and giving them life skills,” Barry said.

Jimenez said it’s the luncheon that keeps her organizing the program. “Every year I don’t know if I can do this another year because it is a lot of work,” she said. “But every year when I go to this luncheon, I go, ‘Thank you, God, for this project, for blessing me with it.’ ”

Parkade student Cole Serrage, 11, said he has learned from the program how crucial it is to have a job. “If you don’t have a job,” he said, “then you’re going to have taxes and you’re going to have to pay them.”

At Parkade, Jimenez continues teaching the students each step of the dining process, from when they introduce themselves — speaking clearly and making eye contact — to when they sit down, with napkins on their laps, no elbows on the table.

At the luncheon, she hopes the students will sit with their mentors and behave, just like she told them. “We will not have Taco Bell behavior,” she said, “We will not have Golden Corral behavior because we will have White House behavior.”