The Woodshop

“I was encouraged to feel limitless and to truly think outside of the wooden box, which often equated to me making things that were too big to bring home, but the takeaway was that I could do absolutely anything I put my mind to….shout out to Michael Falcone, my former Woodshop teacher, for instilling the belief in this little brown girl that she was capable of doing anything she put her mind to.”

— SHAUNA KAMIEL, CLASS OF 1995

“I also loved Woodshop. I made a kid chair for a family member. Also, I created a Kwanzaa Kinara seven candle holder as a gift for my older brother who celebrated Kwanzaa.”

— NATASHA HUGGINS LEITCH, CLASS OF 1993

“At Harvard I was President of the theater organization; I was doing a lot of producing and logistical work but I also did a lot of costume design, set building and even puppet design on one show. VCS’s theater program—and Woodshop!—prepared me well.”

— MAGDALENE ZIER, CLASS OF 2008

“As I progressed through my years I returned to Woodshop as one of my electives in 7th Grade. During this elective period, I remember building a cradle for my sister who was pregnant with my first nephew. I also built a checkers/chess table with a drawer to store the pieces. My mother stenciled this table and it is still in our family today.”

— LABAN CABRERA, CLASS OF 1984

“My favorite place was definitely the Woodshop. I have so many amazing memories there; and I still have a lot of projects I did there actually. I built bulldozers, and boxes, and I think a lot of the beginnings of my creativity and my confidence expressing myself artistically came from VCS.”

— EVA ZUCKERMAN, CLASS OF 1997

“My mother would not let me wear heels, and I was determined to have high heeled shoes. I decided I could make them in Woodshop by attaching some carpet to a couple of pieces of wood and gluing it all together. This was probably 1981? I was advised by the teacher that ‘it doesn’t work that way.’”

— ERICA TRIPARD, CLASS OF 1985

“There was this one spoon I made; it took a ton of sanding, I would literally like walk around just sanding this spoon because it had to be really smooth. It was really time consuming, and it took a ton of patience and it really taught me how to be more patient myself because I was always the type of person who just wanted to just get something done as quickly as I could because I wanted to get that satisfaction quickly. But learning that sometimes things take time to make it as good as it can be, and to put in that effort and put in that time and in the end when I finally finished sanding everything and I was able to glaze it or put the finish on it, it looked so nice and it felt really nice and it was all smooth.”

— LIAN BENZ, CLASS OF 2022

“Throughout life, I have always thought of it whenever I smell wood chips and am grateful for the ability to be at least a little ‘handy’ because of the skills learned there!”

— SARAH YARDENI, CLASS OF 1986