In fall of 2011 Beam Camp made an ambitious decision: instead of building one incredibly complex, totally unique huge project from the ground up with campers each summer, we were going to build two. Two completely different methods, sets of materials, and designers. It was reckless, exhausting and exhilarating. After two summers of this craziness, we had to ask ourselves: how could we better support our staff physically and mentally in guiding campers through the process of building two spectacular projects?

In retrospect, the answer seemed obvious and inevitable; we partnered with the youth themselves. In the winter of 2012 we designed the Beam Leadership Fellows program. This new approach to camp allowed for older teens to take on managing and guiding the teams of campers (“Waves,” we call them) who collaborate on challenges of building our Big Project.

I think that is when the Apprenticeship program, and in many ways Beam Center itself, was born.

The seeds of everything Beam Center embodies in 2024 were planted in a New Hampshire forest; from the way we collaborate with public schools and teachers to create hands-on classroom projects citywide, to our Apprenticeship Program that prepares teenagers’ to make informed choices about meaningful labor and continual learning throughout their lives.

For me, the link between building spectacular projects in the woods to training teenagers to produce the OtherWorlds Fair, or teaching in our Connected Worlds program is our Learning Production model. It calls for large-scale endeavors that would otherwise be impossible to achieve without youth/adult partnerships. Without Beam Camp Fellows, there would be no Beam Camp big project; without Apprentices, no Connected Worlds program serving over 1000 New New Yorkers.

In 2014 we trained and employed 15 students from Brooklyn International High School as Beam Center Apprentices. Now, in 2024, that number has grown to 600 students from more than 15 High Schools. Each year Beam Center’s Apprenticeship Program uplifts teens as they learn creative and technical skills taking them from novices to experienced teachers and builders. They are often participants’ first paid employment, helping them establish their resume while earning a fair wage. In 2024, Beam Apprenticeship program participants earned a total of $921,000.

This Toasting (Giving) Tuesday we need your continued support to equitably fund our Apprenticeship Training Program experience for all our youth, regardless of their documentation status.

It’s not just Beam Center that depends on youth to solve incredibly complex problems to create great things. It’s all of us.

Youth to the rescue.

The three hundred foot tree*.