Stories · Alumni
Three hundred and ten people who used to be here.
We track alumni loosely, by choice and with consent. Six of them, on what stuck — and what did not.
- Alumni tracked
- 310
- Still in Portland
- 71%
- Came back to work
- 6
- Oldest cohort
- 2011
Alum
Ari, 2019
Went to Benson, then an electrical apprenticeship. Now a journeyman electrician who has wired two of our sites. “The Void taught me to sit with a problem instead of panicking. I use that every day on a job site.”
Alum
Marisol, 2023
Still in high school, works the repair bench on Saturdays, and is the youngest person ever to run sound for the Haircut-a-Thon. Wants to be an electrical engineer. “I learned to solder at nine. It is not a big deal. That is the point.”
Alum
Devon, 2016
Went into the Marines, came back, now runs a bike shop in Lents. Donates 20 refurbished bikes a year to the Showcase. “I did not know I liked fixing things until a staff member handed me a wrench and walked away.”
Alum
Hana, 2018
Nursing student at OHSU. Was in the first Nothing cohort. “People think it is funny that I put a quiet room on a nursing school application. The interviewer did not think it was funny. She asked me to explain it and I did, and I got in.”
Alum
Tyrell, 2020
Works at a barbershop on Division. Licensed in 2024. Comes back for the Haircut-a-Thon every year. “Antoine taught me to ask before touching somebody's head. I have had clients cry about that. Grown men.”
Alum, now parent
Noor, 2015
Community college, then a job at the city. Her kid is now enrolled at Cully. “I am the first parent who used to be a kid here. It is strange and good. The lamp is still on the shelf.”
What we ask alumni
Not for money. We ask for an hour, a story, and a sentence about what they remember. About 60% of the alumni we contact answer, which is a remarkably high rate and probably says something about the program. The most common memory is not a project. It is a staff member's name, and it is almost always someone who let them use a tool they were not supposed to use yet.
I do not remember a single worksheet. I remember the first time somebody said 'you can use the good scissors.' I was nine. I am thirty-one. I remember it.
Come back
Alumni are welcome at any open studio, the Bridge Ceremony, the Haircut-a-Thon, and Family Night. Several come back as volunteers; six have come back as staff. If you are an alum and you want to teach a Saturday lab, email Nia — we will pay you for it, which we did not do for the first ten years and should have.
Alumni, check in
Tell us where you are and what you remember. We are building the fifteenth-year archive.