Joining Together

The new Teen Craft & Trade Intensive program is connecting high schoolers to NBSS and building the next generation of makers

Through an innovative new Community Education program, North Bennet Street School is giving high school students the chance to explore what it means to work with their hands in a workshop–one dovetail joint, hammer, and pin vice at a time.

First launched in Summer 2025, the Teen Craft & Trade Intensives offered a selective group of 40 students the chance to immerse themselves in carpentry, furniture making, jewelry making, preservation carpentry, and bookbinding. The program is made possible by a remarkable grant from the Cummings Foundation which allowed NBSS to give out scholarships to those who needed them, plus support the work involved in launching a new initiative.

“The idea of these one-week intensives is to give students exposure and experience in a discipline in a short amount of time, using all of the same tools and techniques that we use with our adult students,” said Brittany Carlson, Director of Community Education and the force behind the intensives. 

In the process, teenagers are learning valuable lessons about their own capabilities, gaining confidence, and cultivating passions to shape their future paths.  

Learning by doing 

For Gabby Bernard, a senior at Beverly High School on Massachusetts’ North Shore, it was a transformative experience. Ever since she was little, Gabby’s eyes have lit up whenever she’s gone antiquing. Although she’d never picked up a tool before coming to NBSS, she’s long dreamed of one day having her own line of furniture with remarkable artistry, ornate handpainting, and claw feet. 

At NBSS, she learned how to use a table saw, planer, and dovetail saw, how to sand, build a drawer, and shape legs. Since she brought her table home, where it occupies a place of honor as a record player table in her family’s living room, Gabby has sanded it down twice and repainted it for extra practice. She’s also been trawling sidewalks for furniture to repurpose and redesign. 

“At NBSS, we learned by doing,” Gabby said. “I learned to trust the process of making. This program forces you to get out of your comfort zone and try things you’ve never even thought about before.” 

Peter Foley, a senior at Dearborn Academy, came to NBSS for the Preservation Carpentry intensive, already knowing that he liked to build things. 

When Peter began the program in August, he quickly learned to navigate the MBTA himself, getting to class at 8:45 am each day. Everything felt new. Unlike a high school classroom where he has to sit still for lectures, Peter and his seven peers were on their feet learning by watching their instructors, Sophie Linnell PC ’21 and Teaching Assistant Elizabeth Boyle, demonstrate a technique and immediately get to try it for themselves. 

He learned a lot in a short time: “How to cut a mortise and tenon joint, how to use a hammer and chisel effectively, steps to making a half flap. It was both fun and engaging,” he said. 

Over the week, Peter and his fellow students built a reconstruction of the mid-18th-century privy from Judge Samuel Holton’s home in Danvers, Massachusetts, a property now stewarded by the Daughters of the American Revolution. 

“I’ve had trouble in high school sitting at a desk and doing math sheets,” Peter said. But at NBSS, math took on a new purpose. In the workshop he measured support beams, working calculations at the bench, then using a saw to cut them precisely. 

The experience settled Peter’s plans for the future. “I realized that I love taking something and applying it. I’m planning to apply to NBSS in the next few years, study carpentry, and get a job in the trades,” he said. 

“What Peter learned in the trades during the teen intensive at NBSS was worth it,” his mother, Katherine said. “He learned so much about himself. What he learned about getting up and heading out of the house, and participating in a program that really showed him how to be independent, was worth it five times over.” 

From hesitant to confident 

Being part of the Intensives was just as meaningful to the NBSS instructors as it was to their students. A dedicated group of NBSS instructors and teaching assistants took Brittany’s idea and ran with it, creating the curriculum that shaped learning outcomes, made it successful, and set the students up to have formative experiences.

Colin Urbina BB ’11 taught the inaugural Bookbinding intensive. He set out to give his eight students enough experience to know whether the craft was something they would enjoy in a full-time career. “That meant entrusting them with knives and our sharpest scissors, and pin vises which are essentially needles on sticks. They were given a high level of responsibility,” Colin explained. 

The trust paid off. On Monday, they practiced marbling paper with guest artist and former bookbinding student, Fox Maasch, and paste paper making with Teaching Assistant India Patel BB ’24. On Tuesday, the students cut the paper into pages, then practiced hand-sewing them on Wednesday. Over all, they made five different types of books, including pamphlets, flag books, coptic-bound books, and sewn board bindings. 

Juliana Heck CF ’24, the Teaching Assistant for the fine woodworking and furniture making intensive, was deeply inspired by watching the students go from hesitant to confident. By the end of the week, each student was using every tool in the shop and had their own side table to show for it. 

“Working with high school students during the woodworking intensive was one of the most rewarding teaching experiences of my career. Students impressed me with their patience, curiosity, and problem-solving,” she said. 

Brittany, the instructors, and teaching assistants will build on the foundation they laid with the inaugural teen intensives by offering new intensives over the 2026 February and April school breaks in addition to programming over the summer.  

“Participating in an intensive program can really affect a student’s life trajectory and help them to find their purpose, passion, or even just their next step in what they are interested in exploring more,” she said. “It’s incredible for NBSS to have the chance to provide that lightbulb moment to many of our participants and to be part of growing the next generation of crafts and tradespeople.” 

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To learn more about applying to the upcoming February and April Teen Craft & Trade Intensives, visit nbss.edu/teens.