First female carpenter to represent N.J. in SkillsUSA national competitions

HIGHTSTOWN, N.J. — For 18-year-old Brittany Pochick, her love for mixed media art has evolved into carpentry, and has been therapeutic, especially because she excels at her crafts.

Pochick graduated from Hightstown High School this year, and is a first-year student in a two-year carpentry program at Mercer County Technical Schools (MCTS).

“She is the first female carpenter in the program to represent New Jersey at the national level competitions after winning first place in her school district and also placed first at the State level competitions for the SkillsUSA programs,” said Lori Perlow, former community liaison at MCTS.

Not only is Pochick a talented first-year carpenter, but she is also an entrepreneur with a mixed media art studio and an online business, Perlow said.

Both special student as well as a nontraditional one, Pochick uses her art and craft as therapy to deal with past traumatic life experiences, and she thrives in this male-dominated profession.

With her grandmother and her mother’s support, when Pochick was 7-years-old and needed therapy, she started exploring mixed media art forms.

She later started her business that became a legitimate or legal business when she was only 12, she said.

Currently, her mixed media altered art include “paintings, assemblage art, metals, steam punk pieces, work with paper, laces, fabric and textiles,” Pochick said.

However, as she got older she became more interested in woodwork and carpentry, which is an extension of her love for mixed media art, she said.

It started when she first entered in a Home Depot store.

“The first time I ever went into a Home Depot, I loved the smell of wood, and I like working with my hands and building things. I guess I have a little engineering in me,” she explained.

Pochick has been woodworking for about four years now and says she definitely knew she would like it because she likes to use wood and tools to create something amazing.

She said that even though most people find it challenging, she mostly likes building roof rafters. She said the most challenging thing for her to build in carpentry is stairs.

“For SkillsUSA, I’ll be framing out a small modular house. They may have us do interior work such as roofing, trimming and painting,” she said.

Pochick cautioned that she really does not know what she will be building for the actual competition because she will not get the blueprint until the day before the event.

However, she is confident in her skills and believes she will do well.

She said she is especially skilled at building things that others find difficult to build such as rafters because she has strong math skills and she is good at visualizing blueprints before she actually builds the items.

“She was the type of student who was very project-oriented,” said Doug Shunk, her former counselor at Hightstown High School.

“She liked creating a project and see it sit in front of her. She was very enthusiastic. She told us she wanted to get out from behind the desk and jump into the hands-on projects that we offer here (at MCTS),” Shunk said.

Perlow added that the collaboration between Hightstown High School and MCTS is very important because in the case where Shunk was Pochick’s counselor he was able to encourage her to come to the MCTS program.

Apart from relieving anxiety and stress, Pochick said her carpentry has been financially beneficial to her and that she is especially proud of her doghouse that she built this year.

She said she likes doing roofing and the finishing touches on her work where she uses the miter saw for trimmings.

Now, she is looking forward to representing New Jersey in carpentry, and to her performance at the SkillsUSA annual national competition in Louisville, Ky, on Thursday.