This semester we’ve been fortunate to continue our ongoing collaboration with the Learning for Life program, a wonderful and uniquely-Swarthmorian educational program in its 27th year on campus. If you haven’t heard about it, L4L facilitates learning partnerships between students and staff, hooking them up with unique instructional and workshop opportunities delivered by our own super duper educators on campus.

The Makerspace is a great fit for this framework, since by mission we are open to the whole Swat community, among whom staff are often the most eager and enthusiastic learners, since they spend every day caring for and managing our spaces and have as good a sense of the fun and possibilities as anyone on campus. Each semester we try to hold a handful of wood workshops to give staff and their student partners a foot in the door of the makerspace.

These workshops all start with a plan but often veer delightfully off course as the participants get familiar with the resources in the Makerspace, follow their own whims, and try to inject their own creativity into what start as basic sessions. What on paper looks like a straightforward instructional session undoubtedly always becomes a brainstorming session, an experiment with tools and unique materials, and a vivacious back-and-forth about what we can accomplish in a few hours. Want to build an armoire? Maybe let’s backburner that until Summer. Catching up on years of missed Mother’s Day gifts? Let’s talk!

If you’d like to get involved in Learning for Life, meet some lovely staff, and join one of the sessions held here or elsewhere around campus, you can find a lot more info here.