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“I’m in the right place, doing the right thing”

Cabinet & Furniture Making ’25
Age 35
Cambridge, Massachusetts

While attending an architecture master’s program, Alana realized she loved architecture, but wasn’t going to love being an architect. Before pivoting to graphic design and marketing, Alana took a woodworking Community Education class at ÍÃÅ®ÀÉÖ±²¥ Bennet—and never shook the feeling it was where she was meant to be. Eight years later, she returned to ÍÃÅ®ÀÉÖ±²¥ Bennet.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself—how old you are and where you’re from?

I am 35, and I grew up outside of Boston, in Wayland and Concord.

What were you doing before NBSS, and what inspired the change?

After college, I started an architecture master’s program. I quickly realized, though, that while I loved architecture school, I wasn’t going to love working as an architect, and I decided to move back to Massachusetts. 

I ended up doing graphic design, marketing, and most recently an office job. But I wasn’t happy.

When/how did you discover your discipline/field?

I always thought designing and making furniture would be a cool thing to do. In architecture school, I remember saying that I don’t think at the scale of a building … I think at the scale of furniture. 

While figuring out next steps after my break from architecture school, I took a woodworking Community Education (CE) class with Ellen Kaspern CF ’03, who is also an instructor in the full-time Cabinet & Furniture Making (CF) program. At that time, I didn’t have any grander goals other than getting comfortable in a woodshop. But the way that she taught that class and the focus on high attention to detail did something to me. At one point, she took us upstairs and showed us the work being done in the full-time CF program. 

Over the next eight years—which is how long it took me to get back to ÍÃÅ®ÀÉÖ±²¥ Bennet—that CE experience stuck with me. That’s when I decided to take the Three-Month Furniture Making Intensive at ÍÃÅ®ÀÉÖ±²¥ Bennet. Within a few weeks of starting the intensive, I thought, ‘I need to be here.’ I was so excited about what I was doing that I didn’t even want to stop for the weekend.

Why did you choose to invest in training for a new career?

Walking to the train after one of the Three-Month classes, I realized I was thinking creatively again. I had been worried that I’d lost that and would never feel it again. I started crying on that walk because I was so excited to find that again. It felt like such a gift to me and I thought, ‘I can’t let this go.’ 

So I applied to the CF program and was accepted. I was so excited that I would get to hold on to that feeling and continue learning.

In what ways have you felt supported during your time at NBSS?

Our instructors are so invested in all of us—I was blown away. There is a lot that goes on with learning this work, and they know how important mindset is, too. They have pushed me to be confident in my own abilities. They give so much of themselves.

How do you feel at the end of a full day in the shop today compared to before NBSS?

Doing office work felt like I was fighting how my brain wants to think. When I got hung up on the details, that was seen as more of a problem. This is the first time that those tendencies that I thought were weaknesses are now strengths. On my first day of the CF program, as I was walking up the stairs, I couldn’t believe I was finally doing what I had dreamt of for so long.

I used to come home exhausted from sitting at a computer all day, and would need to knit, craft, or do something to quiet my mind. Now, working with my hands all day, there’s nothing to wind down from, and it feels amazing. I’m doing the kind of work that my brain wants to do. I would love nothing more than to do what I’m doing now for the rest of my life.

What’s next for you?

I was hired as a Teaching Assistant in the CF program and will continue working in Community Education, where I also worked as a student. It is my dream situation.

If you could sum up your NBSS experience in one word or phrase, what would it be—and why?

Affirming, and reaffirming. Every day, I am more affirmed that I am in the right place and doing the right thing.

What’s a favorite memory from your time at NBSS—something that’s stayed with you?

One day, while building our toolbox, I told my instructor Matt Wajda CF ’00 that I felt like I was going too slowly. We ended up having this great conversation—he really engaged with what I was saying and pushed me not to think that way. He said: Speed will come later. Just do things well. 

I’m very proud of myself when I think about where I’m at now, doing this work. The School changed my life.

This story is from our Summer 2025 issue of Benchmarks magazine. View more issues.