Oscar, GLTS Junior, Carpentry

What’s it like to be new on this building site as a student in carpentry? Well there’s a lot to learn! Mr. MaGee makes sure that we know all of the proper safety with tools and ladders and all. I just started here on Monday. Until this week I was learning remotely full-time. So there’s a lot that you can’t learn well online.  In just 3 days I’ve been learning about framing, trim, metal fasteners along with all of the important safety techniques. I’ve been helping to take down the pump staging. It’s called pump staging because you pump it with your foot.

Mr. Magee, is a genuine guy, really chill. He helps me understand what I have to do every day. I watch him and try to ask the right questions to learn all that I can.

I chose carpentry because I like hands-on working and working outside. I feel healthy and like I’m doing something productive. We rotated through the different options our freshman year. For carpentry, we all started by building a bird house, learning about the tools, learning about different types of wood.

Now here I am helping to build the rear porch roof. The other students are helping me come up-to-speed and showing me what needs to be done. You can’t make a mistake— this is going to be someone’s home.

I’m a junior so I have another year here before I graduate and then I hope to go to college.