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Diversity Program Helps Museum Change Lives

Posted on: Tuesday, 18 October 2005, 06:00 CDT

By Wit Ostrenko

Nestor is not ordinary. He is exceptional. So is his story.

He started as a 10th-grader at our science center's Youth Enriched by Science (YES!) program for the underprivileged. He made it to the 11th grade while missing 53 days of school -- but never a day at MOSI (Tampa's Museum of Science and Industry).

We asked him to stop missing school or he could not be mentored at MOSI anymore. He went to school, worked at MOSI for three years, graduated from high school, got accepted into Harvard, went to the Boston Zoo working with youth, and came home to his community to help other kids like himself.

He is now a mature professional, the 30-year-old program director of at-risk kids at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa.

Nestor's story is amazing and wonderful. It's a story about the real difference science centers can make in every community, including yours.

You can make a difference in a person's life by getting him or her involved in a science center such as the Science Museum of Virginia. Every community has a zoo, nature center, aquarium, or a museum of science. How can they help educate minority kids?

Why Was Policy Adopted?

MOSI in Tampa, Florida, made a "PROMIS" to its community by Promoting Representation of Minorities in Science.

Eighteen years ago, as the new director of MOSI, I noticed one of our staff members following two African-American college-aged males making their way through the museum. When the staff member was asked what she was doing, her reply was "security." They were the only two African-American individuals who came to the museum that week, and the PROMIS program had to be invented.

How could we get women, people of color, the economically disadvantaged -- the whole community -- involved at the science center?

Make a difference in your community by inviting minorities in as guests, not just visitors. This not only will increase your attendance and revenue numbers but you will change their possibilities for careers, quality of life, and appreciation of their world around them.

MOSI put together a Black American Scientist exhibition to illustrate the great black scientific minds of the U.S. At the opening reception of 280 people, my wife and I were the only white faces in the room for this otherwise successful exhibition, which started the change in our diversity of guests. We had the first Head Start facility in a museum in the country, and young families continued to be attracted to the science center, thereby increasing attendance.

Build your own community-oriented exhibits and programs, and you will be attractive to everyone.

It's easier for you to become interested in sports or science if you are coached by a person who looks, sounds, and acts like you do. Make a difference in a person's life by hiring minorities to be your front-line educators.

PROMIS Lifts All

Ora, a young, African-American female physicist and chemist, is teaching home-schoolers and museum school groups about some of the most exciting, but some might find difficult, parts of our universe. Young girls of all races admire her for her command of science.

Leadership of the science center is what really determines the extent of the difference the science center will make in reaching all segments of the community. Maruchi Azorin Blanco runs a minority- owned business and led MOSI over the past five years to reduce Hispanic dropout rates for kids (32 percent) in the Tampa Bay area below the national average.

Using Hispanic scientists as mentors for the Hispanic youth of Tampa and a black-tie fund-raiser changes the life of the most vulnerable of our community by providing mentorship and cash to put Hispanic kids to work as YES! team members. Maruchi believes that by making the National Hispanic Scientist of the Year Program a success, not only her ethnic group but the whole community and nation is energized with a PROMIS.

The lessons we have learned: (1) Programs and exhibits about minorities bring minority visitors, (2) minority staffers increase visitor comfort, and (3) boards must also be diverse.

Visit your local science center today, and bring a friend.

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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