Employee Spotlight: Canvas Machine Finisher Rushaine Davis

Rushaine Davis woke up one day and realized that working in a burger joint in Vallejo was not what he had planned for his life. He wanted more: a trade that he could learn and master, the opportunity to work with a mentor who would support him and help him advance in his career, the chance to have a better life.?

Having arrived in the U.S. from Jamaica, Rushaine decided to take a chance and learn a new skill, carpentry, at Asian Neighborhood Design (AND). AND provides public-service architecture and planning, and also operates the Education, Employment & Training Center (EETC) in Oakland and the Success Center in San Francisco, both of which train local, underrepresented youth in the construction trades. Rushaine was learning how to become a carpenter at Success Center and enjoying the learning process, he says, when one day a woman walked in and asked him if he’d like to learn drywall.?

That woman was Theresa Arevalo, who had been a drywall finisher and had worked with community outreach groups for years. She had recently joined Canvas as one of its first employees and was tasked with building out a field crew who would learn how to operate the Canvas machine, provide feedback, and eventually help train others to learn how to use the worker-controlled drywall finishing robot. Having experience with AND, Theresa visited the S.F. office in November 2018 to see if she could find some young, eager trainees. Rushaine was in the building that day.?

“I instantly liked her,’ Rushaine says. “She was very caring and kind. But I wanted to be a carpenter, not a drywall finisher.”

Rushaine says he went home and told his sister, who is very close with him, about Theresa and her offer to learn drywall at a construction robotics startup. “My sister said, ‘I want to meet Theresa.”?

“Rushaine’s sister came to meet me the next day,” Theresa confirms. “She looked at me and said, ‘Oh, girl, I know you’re going to be good for Rushaine. I can just feel it.” The rest is history, she adds. “Rushaine and I have worked together ever since.”

Rushaine apprenticed with Theresa (and with the DC-16 union) and now is a Canvas Certified Finisher. He works with the Canvas Product Operations team to train drywall finishers that work for Canvas’s Innovation Partners how to use the machine. He is also part of the new Canvas Customer Success Team, which provides Canvas customers with “white glove” support on their projects.

“Every day working for Canvas is great,” says Rushaine.” Every morning when I wake up, I think, ‘I get to go to work.’ They gave me not only a? job, but also motivation.”

Rushaine does not need much motivation, Theresa counters. “I saw his motivation on Day One. It’s why I hired him. I could see he had a sense of urgency and his work ethic was huge. You can’t teach that; it has to come from within.”

When asked what the future holds for him, Rushaine says he no longer has plans to learn carpentry and intends to stay with Canvas, his field team, and Theresa. “Everyone here is so kind and supportive,” he says. “We are family.”

Rushaine, Theresa and the rest of the Canvas Customer Success Team often provide their volunteer drywall finishing services at Youth Spirit Artworks’ Tiny House Village in Oakland. You can learn more about the organization here: https://youthspiritartworks.org/programs/tiny-house-village/?