Beatriz Cuevas, a young intern at The Crucible

Fuego! Youth Internship Program

01 Ella Tiene Fuego

After hearing about The Crucible, the Bay Area’s school of industrial and fire arts, from a teacher who noticed her interest in jewelry, Beatriz Cuevas signed up for summer camp at The Crucible in 2008.  “I took blacksmithing because it was the only class available; I didn’t know what to expect, and was kind of scared of the fire.  But after getting hands on and learning the skills, I realized I had nothing to fear.” Two years later, as a high school junior and intern in our new “Fuego!” program, Beatriz is helping other youth become competent and confident artisans.

“Fuego!” is a leadership opportunity for high school students who want to deepen their technical competence, learn leadership skills, and support our youth summer camps. Youth leaders chosen to participate in the program make a big commitment: first, to serve as an apprentice and youth leader during summer camp weeks in July and August; and second, to actively learn and model the life skills that our program teaches.

During camp sessions, interns assist instructors with studio set-up, registering students, and assisting in morning session activities.   “Fuego!” interns are an invaluable part of the lunchtime routines, supervising younger campers, helping with clean up and working to create a fun environment. After a full morning, their work isn’t done; they meet with our youth camp coordinator for reflection, feedback, problem solving, and guidance or training.

“This is definitely a win-win program for both the youth leaders and The Crucible,” says Kristy Alfieri, Education Director, “Youth interns not only support our program by reinforcing positive communication and behavior among campers, they learn skills in a real-world environment that will serve them throughout college and beyond.“

“I will never forget my experiences at The Crucible,” says Beatriz, “Everything there is just so cool, and it will benefit me in applying to colleges.”  “Fuego!” youth interns are extraordinary assets to The Crucible’s programs; we predict they all have a blazing hot future ahead of them!

Girl welding at The Crucible's youth program

The Crucible: an incubator of Industrial arts education for Oakland’s youth

The Crucible is a West Oakland non-profit arts education center (located near West Oakland BART) that fosters a collaboration of arts, industry, and community by teaching fire, metal, glass, and light art. Founded in 1999, The Crucible currently offers more than 600 classes to nearly 5,000 students (both youth and adults) annually in everything from bronze casting to neon, welding to glass working, blacksmithing to fire dancing. Dedicated to the creative use of fire and light.

The Crucible is also known for its innovative and stunning public events and fundraisers, uniting artists from diverse disciplines. Recently, the center produced HEAT: A Fire Cabaret starring renowned jazz singer Kim Nalley, and featuring a dazzling array of fire artists and performers — even members of the Oakland Fire Department — all to raise funds to support The Crucible’s ongoing educational mission.

But OaklandSeen readers may be unaware that The Crucible’s youth program works to empower youth through the arts, and has exposed thousands of young people of diverse backgrounds to the arts and sciences through hands-on workshops and classes that build confidence, inspire creativity, and instill responsibility. Now in its sixth year, the Youth Program serves over 3,500 youth annually through fieldtrips, classes, workshops, bike programs, educational outreach and community collaborations in the West Oakland community and beyond.

Through classes and camps, The Crucible teaches industrial arts to children of all backgrounds. During the summer the Crucible offers camps (July 19-23 and August 2-6) where youth ages 12 to 18 can learn to weld, forge steel, work with molten glass, and make jewelry.

Over the last few years, The Crucible’s Bike Program has become the organization’s most popular community outreach program. There’s a force for positive change in West Oakland sparked by this growing program, and it’s happening Oakland-style. That change is being forged in after-school and weekend classes, the popular Earn-A-Bike program, Youth Spring and Summer Camps and at community Bike Fix-a-Thons. In The Crucible’s Earn-A-Bike program, a participant learns basic bike mechanic skills and fixes two bicycles:  one to keep and one to sell.

This program is an amazing success story — it came about when we moved to our Oakland location from Berkeley.  We wanted to be a positive force in the neighborhood, and hit upon the idea that bicycles would be the common thread.  After much success with our Earn a Bike program, and Youth Camps, we are augmenting the programs to include Art Bikes and Youth Internships.  Kristy Alfieri, Director of Education here, says that the Youth Internship program is probably the most exciting thing she’s ever worked on, and a big part of the future of Oakland and The Crucible.

We are truly proud of our Youth Program here, and it’s not a surprise that Kristy and Carla Hall were awarded the Jefferson Award last year for community service.

For more information on Youth Programs and to register for classes, visit The Crucible.