Preproject

 I chose to do a woodworking apprenticeship with the ultimate goal of creating a picnic table because I've always enjoyed working with my hands and exploring my creativity rather than sitting in a classroom while at Hawken and outside of it but I have almost zero experience around wood. The opportunity to learn from trained carpenters in an apprenticeship environment is an ideal project for me because it enables me to learn a craft that has a real application, takes me out of the classroom environment, and best of all, I get to make something physical at the end. While at the current moment we are still wondering where exactly our picnic table(s) will go, I do hope that we can donate them somewhere, whether it be a public park or private facility so that our contributions will go toward the building of a better community. We are currently in conversation with various groups including the Metroparks to try to get this done. Additionally, I am excited about the openness and collaboration that this project idea has. It will be possible to take the picnic table in any creative direction of our choosing so it will be important that during the first week we can learn as many carpentry skills as possible so that our table(s) have room to grow. Furthermore, I think working with some of my best friends all together will be the perfect way to end high school. Not only do I love bonding and spending time with them, but it will take real teamwork and leadership to agree upon certain choices and all work together toward achieving our goal. This is not a humanities project where we can do half of it or have one person carry the whole team, either we will work together or we will not succeed, but I am sure it will all turn out in the end. For the time being there are plenty of questions left to answer surrounding carpentry: how do we draw up designs, how do we get materials, how do we use power tools, but I am excited to learn the answers to all of these shortly. I am so thankful to all of the mentors who will help us shortly and the approval of Hawken, I know this will be a success!