The “I made this” face.
Taking pride in work does not always come naturally to the adolescent; especially when that work originates in their own imagination or idea. At Beam, it has been our experience that young people can be quick to abandon the work of their own hands/minds as not perfect enough or otherwise not worth claiming. In early sessions of any project or program, we steel ourselves for the signs of frustration: the crumpled paper, the head-on-table, the half-finished prototype. Our Learning Production framework has been informed by years of guiding kids and teens (and ourselves!) to persist through the challenges of collaboration and creation. One key metric that a young person is starting to take ownership of their own ideas and capacity is the “I made this” face.
We are delighted to share a small taste of this summer’s bumper crop.
No matter what time of the year, all of Beam’s learning spaces are imbued with the summer spirit of boundary-less potential to imagine and build. 20 years after we began collaborating with young people on spectacular art works in the New Hampshire forest, summer continues to be a most extraordinary time of creation and accomplishment. The summer of 2024 Beam Center designed, learned and built with 1500+ young people:
1,200 third to twelfth graders acquired English literacy and Career-Connected skills in 67 classrooms across NYC by inventing and modeling devices, landscapes and environments
117 campers from 8-17 years old constructed a collection of giant eggs at Beam Camp in New Hampshire
30 high school juniors and seniors practiced industry skills in wood, textiles, digital fabrication in Red Hook
70 teens produced the OtherWorlds Fair, New York City’s first and only public cultural festival designed and run entirely by high school students, on Governors Island
325 students worked as paid interns in one of Beam’s programs or one of our 60+ externship partners, giving them valuable work experience across the City
And of course, the only thing better than an “I made it” face, is the “we made it” faces.
