Help send Alana to Boat School
Donation protected
Hi! My name is Alana. I’m an educator at a non profit that teaches kids on boats in San Francisco. For the last three semesters I’ve been working with the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association as a boat builder in connection with Downtown High School’s Get Out and Learn (GOAL) program.
Each semester students from Downtown High School, a continuation school, come to the Learning Center in Aquatic Park Cove and together we build a boat. I really love my job! I get to see kids grow in a short amount of time, teach them carpentry, and apply math and engineering ideas in a cool concrete way. I’m working hard to make sure the shop is a safe place for students to learn through this hands on project.
This boat building program has been going on for about 15 years and lots of students have come through the shop. When the students aren’t building with me they’re out on the water rowing and sailing boats past students have built. Downtown High works with students who have not been successful in school in the past and focuses my on project based learning. I’m proud I get to be a part of a non traditional classroom with some really excellent teachers.
Also it’s kind of neat I'm the first woman to run this shop. This semester there have been several young women in class who have shown a lot of interest in boat building and carpentry!
I’ve been working with kids for many years in different ways; a camp counselor, substitute teacher, outdoor educator. I’m definitely still growing but I feel confident in my abilities as an educator.
I am however much less experienced than any prior boat builder who has ever run this program. All the things I have learned I have learned on the job, which has given me great empathy for students who struggle being exposed to wood work for the first time! But it also means I only really know how to build one kind of boat, very simple skiffs. The skiffs are useful for teaching building but high school kids don’t really enjoy rowing them so much and especially for return students they’re not very exciting to build.
I’d really love to go to boat building school so I can have more concrete skills to share with my students and be able to build boats that are more useful to the nonprofit I work for. Ideally we’d be making boats the kids want to row or boats that we could auction off to keep the program running.
The last lead boat builder for this program has recommended a boat school program in Maine he did and after some more research it seems like the right fit for me! The Wooden Boat School has already generously give me a scholarship ($450 off the original tuition cost) and waived the housing fee! They have a spot reserved for me if I can raise the money to go.
Click here to check out more about the Wooden Boat School
Cost Break down:
Tuition: Usually $1275, with scholarship is $825
Housing: waived
Travel: $300 for round trip flight
Meal Plan: $540
Total: $1665
If I raise any additional funds the money would go directly to the programming we do with students.
Thank you for your support!
Each semester students from Downtown High School, a continuation school, come to the Learning Center in Aquatic Park Cove and together we build a boat. I really love my job! I get to see kids grow in a short amount of time, teach them carpentry, and apply math and engineering ideas in a cool concrete way. I’m working hard to make sure the shop is a safe place for students to learn through this hands on project.
This boat building program has been going on for about 15 years and lots of students have come through the shop. When the students aren’t building with me they’re out on the water rowing and sailing boats past students have built. Downtown High works with students who have not been successful in school in the past and focuses my on project based learning. I’m proud I get to be a part of a non traditional classroom with some really excellent teachers.
Also it’s kind of neat I'm the first woman to run this shop. This semester there have been several young women in class who have shown a lot of interest in boat building and carpentry!
I’ve been working with kids for many years in different ways; a camp counselor, substitute teacher, outdoor educator. I’m definitely still growing but I feel confident in my abilities as an educator.
I am however much less experienced than any prior boat builder who has ever run this program. All the things I have learned I have learned on the job, which has given me great empathy for students who struggle being exposed to wood work for the first time! But it also means I only really know how to build one kind of boat, very simple skiffs. The skiffs are useful for teaching building but high school kids don’t really enjoy rowing them so much and especially for return students they’re not very exciting to build.
I’d really love to go to boat building school so I can have more concrete skills to share with my students and be able to build boats that are more useful to the nonprofit I work for. Ideally we’d be making boats the kids want to row or boats that we could auction off to keep the program running.
The last lead boat builder for this program has recommended a boat school program in Maine he did and after some more research it seems like the right fit for me! The Wooden Boat School has already generously give me a scholarship ($450 off the original tuition cost) and waived the housing fee! They have a spot reserved for me if I can raise the money to go.
Click here to check out more about the Wooden Boat School
Cost Break down:
Tuition: Usually $1275, with scholarship is $825
Housing: waived
Travel: $300 for round trip flight
Meal Plan: $540
Total: $1665
If I raise any additional funds the money would go directly to the programming we do with students.
Thank you for your support!
Organizer
Alana McGillis
Organizer
San Francisco, CA