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Sam Begin

ALC students work with Urban Boatbuilders’ Matt Ecklund to construct the 17-foot long Wilderness Traveller canoe. The project requires all the students to collaborate with each other in order to a finish a project of this size. The students also get credit for this project. "A boat represents freedom in a really cool way," Ecklund explains. "It can take you to any place on the planet, and it's also a symbol of a plan that worked well because if the boat works, it stays afloat and that means a lot of people worked well together."

A canoe may be a mere sailing craft for most, but to the kids at the St. Croix Valley Area Learning Center, the humble craft represents much more.

Through the spring, 12 ALC seniors will be constructing the “Wilderness Traveler 17,” a 17-foot long canoe, with the aid of Matt Ecklund from a program called Urban Boatbuilders. These students were selected due to their commitment to their education and can earn credit for their work.

According to their website, Urban Boatbuilders is a local non-profit organization whose missions is to “facilitate positive youth development through the building and use of wooden boats.”

“The goal of Urban Boatbuilders is to empower youth through wooden canoe boatbuilding,” Ecklund said. “The students are learning a trade and traditional skills and applying it in a modern setting.”

The students who are participating were excited before the project had even begun, with the combination of hands-on work and school credit being a large incentive.

“I thought it was a really cool idea,” senior Raquel Ruiz said. “Especially since it’s a credit-earning opportunity. I like that you get to work with your hands.”

The ALC Principal Mary Leadem Ticiu said she has already begun to notice changes in the way students were thinking.

“I noticed something really remarkable when I walked back to look at the students working,” Ticiu said. “I saw them reach into a box full of tools and grab the shiny new ones. Later they would come back and grab the older, more worn tools, because they had the better edge. We often judge things on their outer qualities, and not their inner, or less apparent qualities. This canoe-building is showing that the students are more than what can first be seen of them.”

The very image of the boat is symbolic beyond itself, and represents much more than a humble watercraft to the ALC students.

“A boat represents freedom is a really cool way,” Ecklund explained. “It can take you to any place on the planet, and it’s also a symbol of a plan that worked well because if the boat works, it stays afloat and that means a lot of people worked well together.”

Students will use various tools in order to learn these traditional skills. The hope is that these skills will become valuable in their adult lives. Another goal of the project is to not only teach academic skills, but social skills as well.

“We want to teach students to ‘defy physics’,”  Ticiu said. “They are going to make wood bend with things like heat, which is significant because it is a metaphor for themselves, in that like a tree, a child will grow, develop, and be bended like a tree, and like the wood, they cannot be shaped too quickly.”

These social skills include teamwork, and helping out others in order to make a larger vision work.

“There is only one instructor,” said Ruiz. “So you have to help the other kids a lot when you know how to do something they don’t. It really is about teamwork.”

In addition to the social skills, the faculty also want to make sure the students are learning more practical skills. The building of the canoe is just one way of accomplishing what the ALC calls “integrated curriculum.”

“Students here are integrating their credits with creative experiences. It’s integrated curriculum. Real-life experiences,” Ticiu said. “Student here have had to stretch themselves further than others, but a project like this proves that they have the strength to persevere.”

The uniqueness of their project is not lost on the students building the canoe. It is that fact that is a big reason behind why they wanted to do it.

“It’s really just kind-of like a learning experience,” Ruiz said. “Not many people can say that they have built a canoe before.”

Her table-mate, senior Maria Strybicki chimed in, “Yeah, I get bragging rights.”

The project is also unique in that it gives an opportunity for the students involved to use it to jump into their “capstone project.”

“The capstone project is a senior’s culminating experience,” Ticiu said. “It is the putting-together of their life’s experiences as a student.”

After the canoe is tested out by the students, it will be sold off by the Stillwater Rotary, who initially sponsored the project, in order to raise money for more unique projects like this.

“We would definitely do this project again,” Ruiz said. “I just wish we had done it earlier in the school year.”

With this project working smoothly, and students learning valuable skills, it looks like smooth sailing ahead for the ALC.