Blacksmith Crew
Every student at Warren Wilson College works.
What work crew will you choose?
Students on the Blacksmith Crew create quality handmade craft items, build tools used by other campus work crews, and create architectural and decorative wrought ironwork around campus.
Learning under an apprenticeship model, dedicated students assume roles as assistant, demonstrator, crew leader, designer, and artist blacksmith. In turn, they teach the Warren Wilson community their craft during open forge events they host.
Supervisor Spotlight
Matt Haugh earned his BA in Film and his MFA in Metals/Blacksmithing. In between degrees, he pursued a music career. As an artist, he considers himself fortunate to have followed a path that has led him to WNC, widely considered a stronghold for craft and music in the US. He’s particularly inspired by the opportunities here that offer engagement with and complement the creative life.
As an educator, he’s delighted to join Warren Wilson’s educational community. After nine years of teaching visual art at the secondary level, shifting his pedagogical framework from preparing students for college to preparing students for creative/working life is a welcome challenge and natural progression in his career as an educator.
Why Work Crews?
Part of your work experience is reflection, helping ensure that you achieve both your own educational goals as well as our Common Learning Outcomes. These distinguish our Work Program, giving it focus and relevancy that set it apart from a federal work-study or your average part-time job. Each crew in the Work Program identifies crew-specific goals as well. These outline skills and abilities your supervisor will teach you during the semester.
Our Common Learning Outcomes
- Professionalism & Work Ethic: accountability, effective work habits, punctuality, dependability, time management, integrity, and commitment to the well-being of the community.
- Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: working with available resources to creatively address issues and solve problems, and gaining confidence to make decisions.
- Communication: the ability to convey and receive information effectively with intentionality, honesty, and confidence in both speech and writing.
- Collaboration & Teamwork: actively collaborate with peers to achieve common goals, Distribute labor fairly, and hold each other accountable as committed members of a group.
- Civic Identity: understanding your active influence within the community and how your decisions directly impact the work around you.