The Craft Education Internship Program
Imagine living through the seasons on the North House Folk School campus, immersed in the joyful, busy, and creative work of the school!
Each year, five enthusiastic individuals with a passion for traditional craft and experiential education come to the program to live and work in rhythm with the remote and rugged landscape and shifting seasons of the North Shore of Lake Superior. Interns spend ten months engaged in the world of craft, folk school education, public engagement, and operations support.
Now Accepting Applications!
The 2026 Craft Education Internship Program runs from January 14 to November 22, 2026. The application period is open now through Friday, September 12th at noon CST. Click the button below to learn more about the program and to request an application packet:
Purpose - Advancing the Future of Traditional Craft
The internship program focuses on giving participants a breadth of experiences to equip them in their development as effective educators, craft artisans, and non-profit administrators. Interns develop traditional craft skills through coursework and individual practice. Education and nonprofit administrative skills are developed through classroom coordination, administrative support, public engagement, and practicing teaching skills. It is North House’s goal to support internship participants in their discovery and exploration of the worlds of craft and folk school education, setting the stage for their continued professional development as artisans, educators, and non-profit administrators into the future. Ideal intern candidates are passionate about craft, curious to learn, enthusiastic, and experienced working with people, and happy when pitching in on tasks large and small to help make our folk school run.
Structure - People, Place, Craft, and Community
The program begins in mid-January each year, and in addition to the program experiences, the program offers housing, a modest living stipend, scheduled class time as a student, and funds to support a capstone project. Interns are scheduled 36-40 hours/week in a variety of supporting roles depending on the season. In the spring, interns spend time taking classes, training for supporting roles, and beginning to connect with an ever-widening circle of community. In the summer months, visitors flock to enjoy the beauty of the North Shore of Lake Superior, and interns help support the work of engaging with the public and welcoming folks to campus. Autumn makes space for continued personal craft exploration and individual projects as interns begin to hone in on their areas of interest.
Craft Practice
Exposure to craft is one of the key goals of the program. The program team develops intern-only classes to give interns exposure to North House’s core course areas. Additionally, interns are allotted up to $3500 in course credit for courses they choose during the internship. Interns are also scheduled full or half days dedicated to their individual craft practice, using this time to finish or expand upon crafts learned in class.
Teaching
During the summer, interns take turns facilitating and teaching a 2-hour wood-fired breads class each week. The lesson plan is already developed, and they receive training to deliver it. Interns support kids' programming throughout the year and have the opportunity to develop curriculum for kids' classes.
Facilities
Most weeks, interns work with staff and volunteers to support the needs of the school: cleaning bathrooms, moving tables, setting up classrooms, doing campus laundry, grocery shopping, shoveling snow, lawn and grounds maintenance, and more. During additionally scheduled facilities shifts, they are assigned various projects, including tool repair or building projects.
Public Engagement
Interns work half-day shifts in the front-office school store, welcoming students and visitors, supporting retail tasks and duties, answering phones, processing course evaluations, and registering students for classes. Interns learn how to give weekly campus tours to visitors. The program also allows the opportunity to develop a plan to demonstrate live craft on the commons for four consecutive days in the summer.
Capstone Project
The internship program offers working days and up to $500 budget for the completion of a Capstone Project. The efforts interns put toward this project allow them to work with a mentor in the North House instructor community, engage the community through teaching or demonstrations, practice project management, and budget tracking in the model of a grant-funded project.
Administration
Interns undergo a two-week orientation period with staff members to learn the basics of North House operations. Through the spring, interns attend seminars hosted by staff to take a deeper look at organizational structures and background. Interns attend a weekly intern meeting and frequent all-staff meetings. Guided by individual interests, interns are offered a variety of administrative projects to support events and various programming throughout the year.
Pizza bakes
Every Friday in the late spring, summer, and early fall, interns support hosting the campus ‘pizza potlucks.’ This is a community gathering where students and instructors are invited to bring a pizza topping and make a pizza that the interns bake in our wood-fired oven. Interns work together to fire the ovens all day in preparation!
Deckhanding
The flagship of the Grand Marais Harbor, Hjørdis is our 50’ traditionally-rigged steel schooner that offers visitors access to both the largest lake in the world and experience Grand Marais as it was approached in the centuries before Highway 61 — from the water. Interns receive training and work as deckhands through the summer months, supporting the crew and engaging with visitors.
History - Emerging Craftspeople, Teachers, & Leaders
The internship program has evolved over its 20+ year history at North House. The more formalized internship program began in the early 2000s. Over the years, the program has had various iterations, including sailing-specific internships and administrative support internships. As the institution grew, input from program participants guided the growth of the program into a highly immersive, extended 10-month program. In a formal program evaluation in 2024, program alumni reported that the internship program has had an enormous positive impact on its participants. In 2015, the program moved from three to four interns, and in 2025, we invited five interns to attend the program. A network of over 60 past interns completed the program and went on to a variety of work and life experiences, including becoming community and nonprofit leaders, educators, craftspersons, and much more.
Hear from Former Interns
In spring 2024, North House conducted its first-ever formal program evaluation. The internship program evaluation allowed us to collect feedback from past interns to make plans for the future and to celebrate what is great about the program. Here is some of what we heard from past interns:
“I am so grateful for my experience as a North House Intern. Being welcomed into our Craft Community changed my life.”
“Even though it is a job with many challenges, the benefits far outweigh the work... it is a great way to enter the craft world and make connections with people who can guide you on your journey.”
“I was not who I was before I came. I was who I am when I left. I found myself on the shore. I will always return.”
Two former interns share their perspectives on the internship and talk about what they went on to do afterwards in North House's 20th Anniversary video below. The video is queued up to begin at the intern interviews, but we'd recommend starting from the beginning and watching the whole thing if you have the time — it's worth it!
NORTH HOUSE FOLK SCHOOL-Celebrating 20 Years Of Teaching Traditional Northern Craft from Layne Kennedy on Vimeo.
2025 Interns
Marshall Boone
Marshall is coming to North House from the Chicagoland area by way of Duluth. He has always had a fascination for ‘things’ and loves fidgeting with them, making them, and fixing them. This led him to pursue a degree in the world of chemistry and mathematics, which he struggles to apply, although he is always game to discuss the chemical workings of various crafty things. Having formerly guided canoe and dogsled trips out of Ely, Marshall most enjoys spending time on the water in its various chemical phases. This includes canoeing, snowshoeing, and both cross-country and backcountry skiing.
Elena Brotz
Elena loves cold water, tedious yet creative tasks, and stories of all kinds. Growing up in Burlington, Vermont, Elena took leaning stacks of picture books out of the library, was infatuated with cows, and enjoyed cutting scrap paper with scissors. She eventually moved on to snipping fabric, then sewing, and has been experimenting with different ways of scrappy hand-making ever since. Over the last few years, Elena has spent time going on super long walks, working on some islands, writing, studying the elusive human ecology, and facilitating mending workshops. She is delighted to be here.
Mia Ingram
she/they
Mia was raised in Minneapolis and has lived in Montreal and Cleveland, and is glad to be unlearning the city life. Mia is very particular about sensory input, but luckily for her the wind, sky, water, trees, and fauna of this place suit her pretty perfectly so far. She’s excited about a lot of things that have so far felt out of reach, but is hopeful that this program will bring her closer to them. So far she’s enjoying herself holding and looking at beautiful handmade objects and meeting the wonderful craftspeople who make them.
Z Kaplan
Z is a ceramic artist and craft-maker from Chicago, with recent roots in Minneapolis, now building home in Grand Marais. After a transformative experience at a sheep slaughter, Z fell in love with butchery and became excited about exploring hide-tanning, leatherwork, and wool processing. In transitioning away from a career in clay, they’ve been called toward new mediums, communities, and digging deeper into their Jewish craft lineage. At any moment you can expect to find them asking questions, eagerly exploring, belly laughing, and root digging.
Graham Webb
he/him
Graham grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, and he often misses the woods back home. His interest in craft probably began with making creations from things discarded in the recycling bin. In Asheville, he worked as a furniture maker in a communal woodshop. More recently, he lived in Spain, where he taught English, became curious about weaving, and helped with a Basque shipwrighting project. He loves rock climbing road trips, making Japanese woodblock prints, and cooking for dinner parties.
2024 Interns
Lauren Dahl
Lauren has always been drawn to the boreal forests of the north. Wheedled by their whimsy, she’s spent countless hours walking, skiing, running, and biking within them. The forests have left Lauren with a deep curiosity, and a strong sense of reverence for the Earth. With undergraduate degrees in English, Norwegian, and environmental studies from St. Olaf College, Lauren has been exploring the way that Nordic folktales and craft traditions have influenced the nature-culture divide in Scandinavia. As a steward of the environment, she strongly believes in the power of storytelling through writing, illustrating, making, and moving. A few years of teaching Kindergarten at a Waldorf school in Minneapolis introduced Lauren to even more craft and handwork. This fall, she realized it was time to return to the boreal forests. She left the Kindergarten for a few months of farming in Sweden, where she weeded, woodworked, baked bread, and bottled apple cider. She is eager to continue crafting with her hands at North House Folk School, and is certainly delighted to be back in the northern forests of her home state.
Gracee Hurley-Brown
she/they
Gracee accepted the position as a 2024 North House Intern on her 23rd birthday. She was on a walk around a neighborhood in Minneapolis that she had grown to know well. Having graduated college a few months prior, she was patiently awaiting direction. She figured it would come when the time was right. In many facets, Gracee does not know what she is looking for but is certain she will know when she sees it. Moving to Grand Marais was one of these instances. Entering a community of artists and makers (a distinction worthy of conversation) brings about a sense of abundance in warmth and potential. Much of her experience lies within the digital realms of design and video production, though pen and paper are Gracee’s most frequently utilized mediums. Drawn towards color, form, and texture, she anticipates feeling a fondness towards fiber. Perhaps the most exciting part of this program to Gracee is all the humans to be met and connections to be made. She intends to keep an open mind and heart to all that will come her way throughout her time at North House.
Julia Nellessen
Julia grew up in Illinois, and has consistently felt drawn up north. She loves to romp around in the woods and spend quality time with the many rivers and lakes of Minnesota.
Julia loves to work with her hands. She fell in love with craft as a kid playing in the dirt and sleeping under her grandma’s knit blankets, and again as an adult eating out of a wooden bowl for the first time or serving a friend coffee from a wheel thrown mug. Julia believes that care and beauty are essential to utility. The practice of making, with the intention of routine use and shared beauty, felt deeply meaningful to them growing up and it continues to today.
Julia recently moved back to the Midwest from Washington, where she spent a year and a half managing a ceramics studio in the North Cascades. As a potter, she values her relationship with clay and fire, and she is excited to deepen her creative relationship with the natural world here in Northern Minnesota. She’s looking forward to learning new skills and stories from the many incredible craftspeople at North House.
Phil Stephens
He/him
Phil has been chilling since day 1.
Gracee says: Phil's computer is so large, but they guess it is proportionate to his large size. Phil thinks he is a metalworker. He has the most experience in this after all. He also built saunas for a minute. Maybe more wood is in the cards. He likes to share his knowledge (which appears to be vast). He spends time hunched over his gigantic computer looking up model airplanes and ancient religions.
Phil likes to make noises and also likes to be seen. Even so, he prefers to live unperceived beyond the physical realm. He drinks the liquid from the top of yogurt and makes himself a french press in the morning. He sits in gratitude for the food in front of him. Phil is 27, which is basically 30. He thinks about the future all the time and still claims to be present. I don’t doubt that he is, but the conversation is ongoing. Phil has bounced between craft schools for the months prior to now; North House serves as a resting place for the next 10 months. He has finished yogurt slurping, deep exhale, and computer returns to its owner.
And oh yes, Phil grew up in upstate New York. Was a teaching assistant with ten year olds for a bit. And worked on a trailcrew for about a year. He has an Aussie that he misses very much, and is #sososososo excited to be here.
2023 Interns
Mazzy Flynn
Mazzy grew up in St. Paul, MN, visiting the North Shore every year with her family on camping trips. It was through these trips that she fell in love with this northern landscape. After graduating in the peak of the 2020 pandemic, she decided to forgo the standard career path and instead for the past three years has been working on the Gunflint Trail, soaking in the beauty and magical presence of Northern Minnesota.
Mazzy nurtured an interest in craft since childhood, jumping on any opportunity to create. She loves working with fiber, but is so excited for this opportunity to learn about all types of craft. Outside of North House, Mazzy loves to canoe, travel, read, and watch bad movies.
Laura Korynta
Laura is an illustrator, community artist, and educator who grew up in a boisterous family of six with the abundance of free time and nature. After teaching ESL and arts education, she decided to pursue a more creative life as far from computer screens as possible. As a craft education intern, she is excited to learn more about traditional craft and the way making things by hand can foster connections to ourselves, each other, and our local natural environment.
Emma Mathews-Lingen
She/Her
Emma was born and raised in Saint Paul, MN, and spent her childhood doing hands-on learning, creating endless craft projects, and playing outside. Post-high school, Emma began studying theater arts but quickly changed paths, ultimately completing a degree in sociology. Since graduation, she has worked as an independent framing carpenter, and believes that we all deserve comfortable, functional, and beautiful living spaces. At North House, Emma is excited to explore all aspects of craft (she is a firm believer in the lesser known second half of the "Jack of all trades" saying), soak up as much knowledge as possible, and begin honing her ability to teach.
Dani Sanchez
Dani was born in the Midwest, though her only memory of her time there was getting hit in the face with a snowball before moving to California, where she grew up. She has lived in several states since then including Vermont, Colorado, and Montana, where she has worked for conservation non-profits and as a Wilderness-EMT. Though she has always had a love for craft, it wasn’t until she spent a winter in Northern Montana producing wooden spoons for a gift shop outside Glacier National Park that she realized she could earn a living as a maker.
She recently moved from Reno, Nevada where she taught power-carving workshops at the local makerspace, The Reno Generator, where she was also a member of a collective of women makers known as the Design-Build Collective.
Dani is so excited for all there is to learn at North House, especially in regards to woodcraft and boatbuilding, that she is looking forward to getting hit in the face by winter in the Midwest once more.