by Justin Ouyang
My name is Justin Ouyang and I am a 16-year-old LaGuardia Highschool student going to the 12th grade. During the summer of 2026, my coworker Ava Gholson and I were able to work at UrbanGlass as BAI interns.
During our first week, we met our supervisors Molly Burke and Karina Oumov. Karina was kind and soft-spoken, introducing us to the studio and helping us familiarize with a new environment. She would continue to keep us on task and ensure we worked efficiently throughout the internship. Under Molly’s guidance, we learned several glassmaking techniques that allowed us to recycle old bottles including sandblasting and hotpopping. Throughout this summer, she would dedicate her own time to teaching us core skills in glass art making, such as grinding and engraving. We used machines such as the Foredom, belt sanders, grit wheels, and the lathe to learn these skills.
Working at UrbanGlass left us with several tasks such as inventory checks on rental kits, studio organization, promotional photography, and up-cycling old glass bottles. We would start every Tuesday checking through kits, carefully documenting which kits missed tools. We also helped clean tool cages that were often disorganized from hasty grabbing of supplies. The stack of unwashed bottles underneath the sink slowly disappeared, now moved into holding containers and ready to be repurposed into art. In between these tasks, we also set aside time to go to WholeFoods, often picking up snacks or La Croix for both the office and youth camps.
Besides our small tasks, we had two major projects during the length of this internship. We were given the opportunity to interview professional glass maker Leckie Gassman. In this interview, we discussed his core beliefs about his famous art style and the boundaries of art and business. Being given the chance to speak to and interview a maker with such skill and experience was very revealing about the professional world as an artist.
Our editing process began with a transcribed copy of the interview. Running through an initial 34 page transcript and fixing grammatical errors and deciding what to remove was mentally exhausting. As we worked through the pages, we ended up using a system where we swapped tasks to keep ourselves from burning out. Often, I found myself cutting glass or working around the studio while Ava worked relentlessly on the interview. Her dedication to the interview and time management skills made what seemed like an impossible task possible in a week.
Adding onto the techniques we learned this summer, we were taught the skills of mosaic creation by former interns Janice and Amy. Following this lesson, Ava and I began planning our own mosaic workshop. Over the span of roughly 3 weeks, we planned to create a workshop that both promoted environmental awareness and was a fun, creative experience. Ava and I divided up the work, with the majority of my contributions lying in design. This ranged from the creation of promos such as posters, to illustrating educational materials, like a Do's and Dont's sheet. Ava worked on technical factors such as slideshows, a zine with informational content, as well as supplies and planning.
After several rehearsals with our mentors substituting as our students, we finally led our workshop on August 6th with 20 students. Thanks to our practice, the workshop ran smoothly and felt less like a nerve wracking teaching experience and instead a relaxed group activity. As the workshop neared its end, almost all participants had finished at least one mosaic and even had a second one they could bring home. At the end of the day, we cleaned up with our supervisor with spirits incredibly high despite how tired we all were.
As our internship comes to a close, I reflect on what UrbanGlass has given me this summer. I’m actually quite jealous of whoever can stay here next summer, because this experience could never be replicated. Interning at UrbanGlass has allowed me to grow in several fields, ranging from new art mediums, work experience, and several professional skills. Everyone, whether they were from the Tech or Education or Communications department, were extremely kind and always willing to guide us when we needed advice. Thank you to everyone at UrbanGlass who has smiled at me kindly, even when I nervously stuttered in our first meeting.