ADRIAN — Working in wood is much more than just a hobby, says Luke Barnett, founder of the Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute in Adrian.

Nobody knows that better than the 20 students who are currently working toward diplomas in the institute’s professional program, titled Wood Design: Furniture Making. The diploma program, which is in its fourth year, is drawing students from across the U.S. and has placed graduates with some of the nation’s top furniture makers. 

“Most people don’t realize how big the wood industry is,” Barnett said.

But if you look around your home, he noted, most of the things you see will be made of wood. That makes furniture manufacturing a multi-billion dollar industry — and Michigan, with its rich history of forestry, is at the center of it.

“If you take the top 10 furniture companies in North America, four of them are headquartered in Michigan,” Barnett said. “Those four companies alone generate over $10 billion in revenue.”

The institute’s 40-week diploma program is designed to give students the skills to either pursue entrepreneurial opportunities or join the workforce with the hands-on experience and sense of craftsmanship necessary to succeed in the woodworking industry.

“It’s a very difficult program. It’s very advanced,” Barnett said.

The current class is the institute’s fourth, and the 20 students enrolled in it will graduate on June 1.

There are many reasons for pursuing the yearlong diploma program as there are students.

The youngest of this year’s students is Nyla Robinson, 19, who is a 2022 graduate of Mona Shores High School in western Michigan. She first started working with furniture in 2020, when she bought a dresser for $50 on Facebook Marketplace and refinished it for a friend, sanding, staining, and putting on new hardware. 

“I really liked it,” she said. “The whole process was so fun.”

After that she started buying used furniture to flip and sell, and also started taking on commissions. But she realized she wanted to do more than just refinish furniture — she wanted to learn how to make it as well.

She found out about the Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute in January 2023. After applying and being accepted into the diploma program, she moved to Adrian in August.

Robinson said she likes the feeling of starting with something as simple as a piece of wood and transforming it.

“I just love the process of it and how you can finish it and you have something that you’ve made yourself,” she said.

After graduating from the program, she hopes to get a job working for a furniture company.

For some students, working with wood is a second career. Armando Covarrubias Jr. was born and raised in New Mexico, in a family that’s been farming for 55 years.

“I’ve been doing that all my life,” he said.

Covarrubias has a bachelor’s degree in business and a master’s in food science, and with the exception of a few years working as a food safety auditor for a company out of California, he’s spent most of his career doing administration for the family business, growing and packaging onions and red chili peppers. 

They fabricated a lot of their own machinery, Covarrubias said, and “anytime I was able to do that, that’s when I was the happiest.”

He was drawn to furniture design because it combines creativity and working with his hands.

After graduating, Covarrubias said, he’d like to continue learning the craft — maybe through an apprenticeship — with the end goal of operating his own design firm.

Though most people in the diploma program are looking toward a career, for one student it’s a post-career adventure. JoAnn Genduso retired in 2021 after 40 years of teaching sixth grade and thought, “I’m too young to just not do anything.”

“When I was in high school, only boys could take shop,” Genduso said. She can remember admiring the projects the boys got to work on — and now, in retirement, she finally gets to learn those skills. 

Genduso’s specific interest is in making furniture for charity. Through an Italian-American club she belongs to in South Carolina, she has helped raise money for a charity that makes beds for kids who don’t have them. After graduating from the diploma program, she plans to not just raise money for the program, but also make beds herself.

“I had never used a power tool before I came,” she said. “For me it was a big deal to be able to come here and learn how to use all the equipment.”

Her favorite project? “My toolbox,” she said. “I love my toolbox.” 

“I’m keeping that,” she said with a smile. “Everything else I’m giving to my nieces and nephews, but I’m keeping my toolbox.”

The program is a competitive one. Next year’s class will only have room for 24 students, a slight increase from this year, but Barnett said 75 have already applied. Applicants need to provide transcripts, send a statement of purpose and a letter of recommendation, and have an in-person interview to be admitted. 

Sixteen out of this year’s 20 students moved from out of state to attend the program, Barnett said. A quarter are veterans; the SBWI is accredited through the Department of Veterans Affairs as an institution where veterans can use their educational benefits.

Companies that recruit graduates include Mod Interiors, a custom woodworking shop north of Detroit whose clients include the Detroit Pistons, and Vogue Furniture, a high-end furniture maker from Royal Oak. Everyone who graduated last year went on to secure a job in the industry, Barnett said.

The program includes a 12-part business series to help anyone who plans to go into business for themselves, including topics like marketing, pricing, and law. 

Students can also take advantage of classes that are offered to the general public by about 30 guest instructors who come in and teach their specialties, which include carving, computer-aided design, timber engineering, wood identification, and stereotomy, the art of cutting three-dimensional solids into particular shapes.

“The community we’ve built here is what makes our program so effective,” Barnett said.

The Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute is at 1375 N. Main St., Adrian, on the campus of Planewave Instruments. More information is at longlivewood.org.