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As nationwide protests erupted after a Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd, employees at the Museum of Science & Technology knew they wanted to bring about change within the Syracuse community. 

The staff thought about how the museum’s work could have a positive impact on Black residents in Syracuse and decided to create an educational program aimed specifically at the city’s Black youth. 

“We have a lot of Black students in our city school district,” said Lauren Kochian, the museum’s president. “And we wanted to do more than just a Facebook post or something that really didn’t have impact. So we thought, ‘Why don’t we do an after-school program and make it just for Black students?’”

The museum will officially launch the program, called Future Innovators, on Feb. 25, Kochian said. 

Future Innovators, which will provide opportunities for Black students to learn more about careers in science and technology, will focus on students in grades six through nine and will meet once every two weeks.

The museum will expose students to several topics related to science, technology, engineering and math, including manufacturing design and aerospace engineering, said Emily Stewart, the senior director of education and programming at the museum. Students will get to work on related projects and activities for each topic and visit local companies that specialize in that area, she said.

The students will also have the opportunity to share what they learn with museum visitors, Stewart said. The projects they produce will be featured in the museum’s “Innovation Station,” an exhibit that displays inventions developed in the Syracuse area. The students will also help facilitate public events, such as contacting astronauts at the International Space Station via ham radio, she said. 

“The cool thing about this program is not just the mix of museum activities and exhibits — which is what we traditionally do — but it also adds the component of career talks and site visits and also them becoming the community engagers,” Stewart said. “It’s not just us imparting information. It’s them learning to become the imparters of information because that’s ultimately what scientists do.”

As part of a mentorship program, Future Innovators will also pair students with a professional in their chosen STEM field who is Black, Kochian said. Currently, there are about 20 students and 10 mentors signed up for the program, she said. 

Providing Black students with the opportunity to build a relationship with someone who works in STEM and looks like them will help the students realize that a career in science and technology is possible, Stewart said.

“Part of the reason that underrepresented groups are underrepresented in STEM is because there’s no sustained relationships that they form with people who look like them in those positions,” she said. “This kind of sustained mentorship and support is really the way to get people involved in STEM and get them interested in STEM careers.”

The museum recently received a $17,250 grant from the Central New York Community Foundation, a charitable organization that distributes grants to local groups and organizations, to fund the Future Innovators program. The museum’s proposal to the foundation was part of a surge in requests that the foundation has seen over the past several months to fund initiatives aimed at supporting Black people, said Danielle Johnson, the foundation’s director of grants and programs.

In June 2020, the foundation established the Black Equity & Excellence Fund to provide financial resources specifically to Black-led projects and programs, Johnson said. The foundation has recently seen a “dramatic increase” in applications for funding to support programs related to diversity and equity, she said.

Kochian said she’s hopeful that the Future Innovators program will awaken a passion for STEM in the students who take part in the program and will help them realize that a career in science or technology is attainable.

“Ultimately, the most critical objective is to really get the students to want to study science — not just in school, but in college,” Kochian said. “If one student does that, great. If all of them do, even better.” 

Published on February 17, 2021 at 10:19 pm

Contact Gillian: gifollet@syr.edu