Hand Crafted

Ben Geithner ’16 works wonders in the woodshop.

Despite coming from a long line of Dartmouth alums, Geithner discovered the College woodshop only after arriving on campus as a freshman. Since then he has crafted everythings from a dessert tray to a queen-size bed for his dorm room. Working in a colder medium, he was also behind last year’s “Carnival of Thrones” Winter Carnival snow sculpture. Although he has taken sculpture, drawing and architecture courses, the Larchmont, New York, native is majoring in earth sciences— with a studio art minor. The shop work has helped with his studies, he says. “I have learned how to step back from a problem and calmly work through a solution,” he says. “The skills I have developed in the woodshop did not come easily, but they’ve made the chal- lenges in my academic life less daunting.” His work requires plenty of patience. “If you have that, and a desire to learn and understand, everything else will come naturally,” he says. “Ben has a very good eye for creating forms, and he’s always on the lookout to learn what- ever is new to him,” says woodworking instruc- tor Greg Elder. Geithner’s advice to woodworking newbies? “Ask a lot of questions and never try to work on something when crunched for time!”