The classrooms of Yestermorrow are buzzing again as we kicked off our new year of courses on our Waitsfield campus! Over the weekend we oriented our new interns in Intro to the Woodshop, and broke out the projector screen in the main studio once again for Anatomy of a House. A few weeks back, we also held a couple of new courses at the Vermont Woodworking School in Fairfax: LGBTQ+ Beginning Furniture Making and Introduction to Wood Turning. It's always such a treat to get to use their beautiful spaces, and get out into a different part of our state. 

Last week, twenty new students settled in for the long haul as we began our Woodworking Certificate and our Winter session of the Certificate in Residential Design and Construction. These students will be living and working here for the next four to twelve weeks, and came from as far afield as Toronto, Tennessee, and Puerto Rico to immerse themselves in the design/build process. This brave group showed up on an icy day - but there's more snow in the forecast!

Now that we're up and running, we have some new staff and interns to introduce:

Anna Fluri - Program Coordinator

Anna joins the design/build team of staff fresh off a stint as a 2022 intern and Semester apprentice. She's stepped into the role of Program Coordinator and will be helping to prepare class materials and workspaces, assisting Program Manager Nick in making sure all of our tools are sharp and all of our lumber is milled. 

Anna grew up in Southwest Virginia where she first discovered her love of all things nature related. After graduating college in 2015, she traveled and worked various jobs in wilderness therapy, outdoor education, trail maintenance, and farming. Last summer she spent a month in Alaska where she got a glimpse into the world of timber framing and her search to expand on that experience led her to Yestermorrow. She started at Yestermorrow as a design/build intern and is excited to be sticking around for awhile longer and to see what this new opportunity brings. She can usually be found petting every dog, looking at all the cool bugs, sleeping, snacking, talking to plants, and picking up new hobbies.

Sophia Mickelson - Design/Build Intern (Jan - May)

Sophia is a 2022 graduate of the Semester in Design/Build program held in partnership with UMass, a crash course in collaborative design and ambitious carpentry. We're lucky that she wanted to stick around as an intern.

Sophia is a former child and current Design/Build intern from San Diego, California. Before coming to Yestermorrow as a student in the Semester in Design/Build, Sophia was in NYC earning a degree in Urban Studies. Sophia geeks on animation and playgrounds that encourage kids to take risks and create. She hopes to work at the intersection of design, build, education, and play to make more engaging public spaces.

Julia Papell - Design/Build Intern (Jan - May)

Julia is new to Yestermorrow, but no stranger to the woodshop. We're thrilled to have her and her diverse suite of talents with us this year!

Julia comes to Yestermorrow following an apprenticeship at the Carpenter's Boat Shop in Pemaquid, Maine, where she began learning woodworking by building traditional small wooden boats. After spending most of her professional life in education and human services, Julia enjoys the challenge, physicality, and creativity of building and craft. In her free time she enjoys exploring local trails, journaling, darning socks, and experimenting with sourdough baking. 

If this is any indication, we have high hopes for the rest of 2023. We hope you get a chance to come by and see it for yourself soon!