Career Shift Took Emily Huffman `81 from Nonprofits to Carpentry

She helps fix floors, doors, ceilings, windows and walls. Huffman mainly works at a homeless shelter in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood. Shelters run by New York City’s Department of Homeless Services house around 85,000 people, including over 30,000 children. 

“We have to keep a shelter running efficiently,” Huffman said. She ensures doors close, windows open and that floors are in good shape, so that people do not trip over broken linoleum tiles, for example. 

“Carpenters are fond of saying ‘We build the city!’,” Huffman said. “I've been saying that too, but in the context of the homeless shelter, I also feel I improve life for some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers.” 

Huffman first became intrigued by the skilled trades her 9th grade year at Barstow. In Bill Thompson’s English class, she remembers seeing a poster on the wall calling for more tradespeople. It caught her attention.

Then, the summer before her senior year, she did an American Field Service (AFS) exchange in the Netherlands, and met a Dutch teenager attending a vocational high school who was on track to become a plumber. 

“I was so sure that it had to be college and he was so sure he needed a skilled trade,” Huffman remembers thinking. Now, Huffman has experienced both. 

Huffman attended Barstow from 7th through 12th grade. While at Barstow, she was on the B-Line staff, participated in choir, musical theater and field hockey. She remembers teachers such as Peggy Mitchell, Joanna Zauchenberger, Helen Mensch and more. And she still remembers meeting Mac Gratwick during her Admissions visit. 

“Mr. Gratwick was very charming and my mom was charmed too. Barstow made a very good first impression on me, which I’ve never forgotten,” she said. 

Following her time at Barstow, Huffman attended Wesleyan University in Connecticut and received a degree in English. After college, she worked at a variety of nonprofit organizations including The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and The Rockefeller University. 

But after 9/11, Rockefeller University and other New York City nonprofits had a difficult time attracting grant money, Huffman said, and she was one of at least 100 employees who were laid off from Rockefeller in 2002. 

“It was time to revisit all those things I had been thinking about from the plumbing poster in Bill Thompson’s class,” Huffman said. 

She qualified for a retraining program, and began a pre-apprenticeship program sponsored by the New York Department of Labor. In the fall of 2003, she was accepted into the apprenticeship of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners, and she became a journeyperson in 2007. 

Only 4.2% of carpenters in America are women, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. And in Huffman’s local union, only 2% of the 8,000 members are women. But Huffman said the number of women carpenters is growing, and that many women are taking on leadership positions in the union. 

“It’s been a real adventure,” Huffman said. “It's been engaging and challenging for me in ways office and white collar jobs are not.”

Huffman said she is “thrilled” to be part of the construction industry. Throughout her career, she has worked on roadwork projects, the Second Avenue Subway and the World Trade Center. And Huffman said that Barstow’s motto at the time, “Wisdom through knowledge,” still shapes her life. 

“I got the idea that curiosity and wanting to find things out is a good thing,” she said. “I’ve never stopped learning and never stopped being curious, and I think Barstow set that in motion for me.”