Q: Tell us your name, your pronouns, and a little bit about how you engage with science

A: My name is Victor Bojorquez. My pronouns are he/him. The way I would describe myself engaging with science, or just learning in general, would be somewhat fluctuating, as I’m still a student and a junior in high school. I engage more interactively. I want to be more hands-on and really get involved in activities. With science, that could be all kinds of stuff. I have science classes and I do science at The Lawrence, so it’s a lot more hands-on rather than just brainstorming.

Q: What is your connection to The Lawrence?

A: Basically, what I’ve been doing for almost a year now is working with the tapenekšekma Ohlone Science Diplomats program. We’ve been working to bring Ohlone values, culture, and traditions into the spotlight. We’re sharing pieces of our culture with the museum through exhibits. We’ve been brainstorming and creating activities that people can get involved in at The Lawrence. I also attended the Association of Science & Technology Centers Annual Conference (ASTC) in 2025 to present about the program there.

Q: Can you tell us more about your experience in the tapenekšekma program and the kind of work you’ve been doing?

A: In the early stages, we did a lot of brainstorming about what we wanted the exhibits to revolve around. A lot of it was collaborating with peers, youth, and adults in the program about what we wanted it to look like. We were creating ideas about what we hoped people would take away from the experiences and the values behind it.

My personal experience involved a lot of talking with my peers and the youth around me so we could get to know each other and share our ideas. Early on, it was mostly communication. As we got further into it, it evolved into designing. We had to get our hands dirty and make tule boats, so I collaborated with peers to build those. I also mashed acorn dust and did other hands-on activities. It went from communication into collaboration, and now we’re finalizing things.

Q: Can you tell us about the traditions, relationships, and collaborations involved in this work?

A: I don’t have a lot of the foundational knowledge about Ohlone culture yet, but I hope to learn more. This project has definitely been a seed that helped me spread my roots and explore opportunities to talk to people and learn more about Ohlone culture, and even other cultures. In terms of collaboration and community practices, there has been a lot of collaboration with the science center and with my peers. Collaboration has meant talking, working together, and openly communicating through email.

Q: How does the project help make science more engaging, accessible, or inclusive?

A: From the beginning we wanted to make sure anybody could engage with the exhibits, whether that be elders, youth, young adults, or older adults. All kinds of ages. Youth can participate, adults can participate, and that makes it special and unique because it brings a sense of togetherness. That’s what makes the work feel engaging and inclusive.

Q: What advice would you give to young people who feel like science might not be for them?

A: The best advice I could give would be to keep trying. As you get older, your interests are going to change. While science may not feel like it’s for you right now, keep trying it, because it can be eye-opening. There’s a bit of science for everybody. Science isn’t limited to what you see in a lab on TV. It can involve research, hands-on activities, and many different paths. For younger people who feel like science isn’t their pathway, I guarantee there will be something, so just keep trying.

Q: What do you think the world would look like if everyone felt like science was for them?

A: I don’t necessarily want to say the world would be smarter, but I think it would be more open. Scientists often have an open mindset. They’re open to new ideas, learning new things, gathering research, and expanding their knowledge. So the world would probably be more open and more accessible to all kinds of knowledge.

Q: What is your favorite thing about science?

A: I would say collecting information. It’s always cool to learn more and figure out how you want to use that information. You can use it at school, in your personal life, or for projects you’re involved in. For me, that would be the Tupěnək Shekma program. Collecting information is always interesting because you’re learning new things and can keep that knowledge with you.

Q: What is your name, your pronouns, and how do you engage with science or science learning?

A: Teresa Barnett, and I use she/her pronouns. I’m the Executive Director of Community Resources for Science (CRS). I engage by supporting efforts to empower both teachers and scientists to bring science to life for children in classrooms, particularly in elementary classrooms, where teachers don’t get a lot of training or ongoing support around science. Teachers themselves often view science as that scary spider in the corner, and they’re just going to ignore it. So we want to give teachers really exciting personal opportunities to discover science in their own lives, to have discovery experiences, and to have things that make their own light bulbs go off, so they’re motivated to bring those experiences to their students.

Q: What is your connection to The Lawrence?

A: CRS is in our 29th year, so we’ll soon be celebrating our 30th year. We’ve had a strong partnership with folks at The Lawrence from almost the very beginning, working with teachers and helping them find resources in the community, whether it’s professional development or field trips. We’ve collaborated on a number of special events at The Lawrence over the years and professional development. Just this summer, we collaborated with the Bay Area Science Project and did a professional development around integration of science, language arts, and math.

On the personal side, it goes back to my childhood of coming to Lawrence Hall on field trips. One of my favorite parts was the hallways downstairs — regardless of what program we were coming for, there were these little activities in the corners and hallways where you could stop and puzzle your way through and figure something out. That ability to figure something out is so powerful. When kids have those experiences, they feel empowered — like, “I want to do more of this.” I had those first-hand experiences as a kid, and I still remember them.

Q: What relationships, traditions, or collaborations help make your work possible?

A: At our heart, our work at CRS is being a connector. We work with classroom teachers — it’s our mission to strengthen their ability to teach science. We do that by weaving connections throughout the community and helping scientists who want to come and share their science. How do you talk about a concept in climate change that you’re researching with 8-year-olds? We connect with those scientists, and they get excited when they come into classrooms, share their pathways, and talk about what makes them excited about science.

We also build connections with the rich community of science centers and community science education in the Bay Area. We help teachers find what they’re looking for, and we help partners let teachers know what’s available.

Q: How does your work make science more engaging, accessible, and/or inclusive?

A: That’s a big part of our work, for both teachers and children in classrooms. The main two ways we make it inclusive are, first, providing experiential learning opportunities for teachers so it demystifies science and helps teachers gain confidence and knowledge for teaching science. Teachers are bound by other tested subjects where the answer’s in the back of the book and you don’t want to be wrong. Science is about asking questions, so we build confidence so teachers start to see themselves as capable and excited about teaching science.

Second, for students, we bring in scientists and engineers and other people who can say, “Wow, you had a really good idea,” “That’s a good question,” “I don’t know the answer — how can we try to find that out?” We show students that science is in their daily lives. If their parents work as gardeners or in restaurants cooking food, what’s the science in those things they do every day? Helping students discover their own inner scientists is a big focus for us. We love getting thank you notes when a kid writes, “Dear UC Berkeley engineers, thank you for coming to my class and teaching us about engineering. Now when I grow up to become an engineer, I know exactly what to do.” They’ve already put themselves in there.

It’s also important for scientists to gain experience communicating in a way that is inclusive and helps people understand it. They are role models for students. The majority of folks in our outreach programs identify as a person of color, or as a woman, or as someone underrepresented in STEM. For them, it’s important to bring that experience into classrooms — either because they benefited from it or they wish they had when they were younger.

Q: What advice would you have for young people who feel like science isn’t for them?

A: The reality of the world we’re living in right now is that everyone needs scientific literacy. If you want to become an athlete, or a musician, or work in design, fashion, literature, the arts — almost any field that isn’t thought of as STEM — you’re going to need to understand issues around climate. You’ll need to understand how to access and interpret data and use technology.

Future pathways will require some degree of literacy and comfort, and it’s nothing to be afraid of. Students should find their connections to it, explore their pathways and interests. The connection is there to something you’re interested in. For example, even if you aren’t going to be an NBA player, there are science connections all around: running sound systems, lighting systems, designing arenas, sports training, physical therapy, and more.

Q: What would the world be like if everyone felt welcome in science and felt that connection?

A: I think we wouldn’t see some of the problems we see playing out, because science is based on critical thinking — asking questions, asking for evidence, and thinking critically about information to make decisions. With social media and AI, it seems like people want to tap in a few things and have an answer appear, or something that triggers anger or fear. You see the harm that comes from that when people don’t have the skills to step back and think critically: Where’s the data? What’s the information? Who’s trying to influence me, and how can I get more information to make a decision? Science brings critical thinking skills.

Q: Do you have a science hero? Who is your science hero?

A: My science heroes are the teachers that we work with. To see a teacher go from, “I’m kind of afraid, I know I should teach it,” to “Oh my gosh, this is so cool, I need to do more of this in my classroom.” Many become peer coaches and help run professional development, or run their own with same grade-level teachers in their district. They go from being afraid, to excited, to being ambassadors to other teachers. They show up every day for their students and are constantly thinking about how to bring more of this to their students. They’re my heroes.

Q: What is your favorite thing about science, and why?

A: Science is about asking questions. It’s about making meaning, and figuring out. It’s about telling stories as we try to understand the world we live in. That’s what I love about science. Science is all around us, it’s part of everything we do. The more we try to understand the world we live in, it helps us build understanding and build that story of ourselves and our communities. Science is about asking questions and pursuing curiosity, and knowing that there are ways to systematically build an understanding of something you’re curious about.

Q: What is your name, your pronouns, and how do you engage with science?

A: My name is Signe White, and I use she/her pronouns. I’m a postdoc in the Integrative Biology department at UC Berkeley. I work with Mike Boots, who is the chair of the department and an expert in disease ecology. My background is specifically in disease ecology and evolution.

My overarching research questions relate to host heterogeneity and how diseases respond to heterogeneous host populations. For example, when we think about immunity and immune responses, some individuals in a population are more or less susceptible to a particular disease. My question is: if we have a heterogeneous host population and infect it with a virus, how does the virus respond to all of those different host backgrounds? And how does the host respond in return? So it’s a lot of host–parasite coevolution.

In my day-to-day life, I engage with science through research and mentoring undergraduate students in the lab. I also engage with the public through conversations with friends and family who ask about what I do and why it matters. And I engage with science learning at places like the Lawrence Hall of Science as well.

Q: What is your connection to the Lawrence Hall of Science?

A: My lab mate Nina had already been involved in Science at Cal and had some connections with people at The Lawrence. She had created coloring book pages about bees as an outreach activity. Eventually she asked if I wanted to join her at an Earth Day event where we hosted a pollinator table. That’s where we met Vincent and Louis of the ‘ottoy Initiative, and we started talking about possible collaborations.

We eventually applied for a Green Initiative Fund grant to study pollinators at three different sites: the pollinator garden outside the Integrative Biology building, Café Ohlone, and University Village in Albany.

We conducted pollinator surveys at each site and did community outreach events. The project culminated in an event at The Lawrence where we surveyed pollinators in the garden and also conducted a nighttime moth survey.

Q: What relationships or collaborations help make your work possible?

A: Working with Vincent and Louis has been a really meaningful collaboration. We’re currently creating new coloring pages that combine pollinator science with Ohlone cultural knowledge.

Each page will feature a bee, moth, or butterfly along with its host plant. On the reverse side, there will be information about that plant and its cultural significance as food, medicine, or something else.

It’s a great example of two different knowledge systems coming together and sharing information with the public in a fun way.

In terms of research collaborations, I’ve also become more connected with the Lepidoptera community. I took a course at the American Museum of Natural History in Arizona, which helped me connect with researchers and hobbyists who study moths and butterflies.

Some of these people are professional scientists, but many are passionate amateur naturalists who know an incredible amount. That community of researchers, museum scientists, and hobbyists has been really important to my work.

Q: How do you make science more engaging or accessible?

A: Mentoring is a big part of it. Working with students forces me to explain concepts clearly and logically. That process helps both them and me.

Another way I connect science with broader audiences is through natural history embroidery and cross-stitching. I create detailed pieces inspired by birds and insects and donate them to natural history organizations for auctions.

It’s not traditional science outreach, but it’s a way of translating natural history into art. Art can be a really effective bridge for engaging people with science.

Q: What advice would you give young people who think science isn’t for them?

A: I actually thought science wasn’t for me either.

I grew up in Kentucky and went to a high school that didn’t have strong science or math education. I didn’t understand how science connected to everyday life.

When I got to Indiana University for undergrad, I realized how fascinating the natural world is. I ended up majoring in anthropology rather than biology because I didn’t have the science background needed to catch up in time to graduate.

Later, I reached out to a professor and asked if she knew of any labs that needed a research technician. She told me she was looking for one, and I worked in her evolutionary genetics lab for two years. That experience was essentially my science education.

Everyone’s path into science is different. Sometimes you find your way through unexpected routes.

Q: What would the world look like if everyone felt welcome in science?

A: Education would be valued as a civic good — something everyone shares in and benefits from. Being deeply informed and curious wouldn’t be a niche personality trait — it would be admired, expected, and supported in our larger culture. Science would be more accessible rather than not gatekept. Community science would feel natural and welcoming, and no one would need to mute parts of themselves to participate. Science would matter to daily life, and people would see themselves not as outsiders observing someone else’s research, but as active contributors in understanding and shaping the world we share.

Q: Who is your science hero?

A: My science heroes are Maria Sibylla Merian and Leonardo da Vinci (sorry, I chose two!). These are both people who embodied curiosity as a compass and a calling.

Merian is inspirational because she was fearless in her pursuit of truth  (originally through art) long before science was a discipline open to women. She traveled from Europe to Suriname where she documented the life history of many insects. Her illustrations blur the line between empirical observation and magical realism.

Leonardo da Vinci, in his own way, lived as though academic disciplines were never meant to be separated. He treated painting, anatomy, engineering, poetry, and natural history as different expressions of the same desire to understand the world. He could look at something as ordinary as the color of the sky and decide the question was not only worth asking, but worth solving.

Both Merian and da Vinci saw science not just as knowledge but as attention: to detail, to beauty, to how things move and change. They remind me that science becomes most powerful when it is curious, interdisciplinary, creative, and boundary-crossing.

Q: What is your favorite thing about science?

A: I love organizing and cataloging things. Science, especially the kind I do, really scratches that itch. For example, in experimental evolution projects I have to plan experiments that run every weekday for months. It requires careful planning, organization, and attention to detail.

Biology can feel chaotic, so science is a way of trying to impose some structure on that complexity. Even if we can never fully organize the natural world, the pursuit of understanding it is what I enjoy most.

Q: Can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your background and work?

A: My name is Saul Cuevas-Landeros, I use he/him/él pronouns. I’m currently the Program Outreach and Volunteer Coordinator at YES Nature to Neighborhoods. I started that position in October, but before then I was a program assistant.

It’s been really fun to be with the organization and learn about the environmental education field and being outdoors a lot more. I really feel like I found where I belong. It’s been cool to work with a great team too that makes it all the better.

Q: How do you engage with science and learning in your work?

A: We have different programs and cohorts for youth and adults. For youth, programs focus on environmental education, belonging in outdoor spaces, and inclusion. Themes vary depending on age. Younger groups learn basic outdoor skills like the Ten Essentials and Leave No Trace principles.

We also have adult programs. Those are more tailored to what the adults need. We have programs for transitional age youth (18-26) and another for adults 21 and up.

In adult programs the nature-based aspect is often about healing and spending time outdoors together. The science comes out more informally.

I’m personally a lifelong learner, so I like to bring that into the programs we do. This last year I really got into birding, and it’s been fun to bring that out to the young folks, and even adults. When we went birding during a bilingual trip in English and Spanish, conversations about language and culture came up. Bird names in Spanish are often descriptive, so that creates stories and connections to plants, animals, and experiences.

Q: What is your connection to the Lawrence Hall of Science?

A: Our Program Director Blanca Hernandez has collaborated with The Lawrence for a while. When I started at YES I was looking through past projects and Blanca told me about a collaboration with The Lawrence that led me to join a community research network project called Culturally Responsive Environmental Outcomes.

The project explores how environmental learning experiences are shaped by community context and how communities influence the outcomes of those experiences. It’s been really exciting. I studied philosophy in college, so being in spaces where people are discussing ideas and then putting them into practice feels very natural to me. It’s great hearing different perspectives and feeling like I have a voice in those conversations.

Q: What relationships or collaborations help make your work possible?

A: First, the land we work on makes it possible. We’re on the stolen land of the Ohlone, and we also work on Coast Miwok lands through different programs.

Richmond itself was built on the underpaid and exploited labor of many Black, Indigenous, and people of color, especially during World War II. Acknowledging that history is important because the work we do is part of that larger context.

But it’s also about the people who care. Richmond is very community-centered, and our work doesn’t happen in isolation. We collaborate with many organizations through partnerships like the Richmond Outdoors Coalition, which includes groups such as Bay Area Wilderness Training, Golden Gate Bird Alliance, Inner City Bliss, and The Watershed Project.

We also collaborate with people like Teresa Harlan from the Alliance for Felix Cove and Katie Klu and Vinnie Souza from All Hands Ecology.

All of these partnerships show that the work is collective. We’re all working together to support the community.

Language is another important part. We try to provide Spanish-English translation intentionally, and I try not to see language as a barrier but as an opportunity to share stories and connections.

Q: How do you make your programs accessible and inclusive?

A: There’s definitely the logistical side — cost, transportation, and language. Those are real barriers.

For example, we recently took a trip to the Marine Mammal Center. It’s an amazing place, but it’s also hard to reach because you need transportation. Addressing things like that is part of making programs accessible.

Another part is the curriculum. It needs to be relevant to the community. For example, our 18- to 26-year-old program discusses the war on drugs and how it has affected the Richmond community. It also explores how nature-based experiences and other healing modalities can support mental health.

We also focus on listening to community feedback. For example, youth programs include lessons on food justice and how food relates to culture.

Another key part is agency. The community already has agency — it’s about helping people recognize that and build confidence in their ability to act.

Representation is also huge. Seeing people who look like you in leadership roles helps build confidence and shows that those spaces belong to you, too.

Q: What advice would you give young people who feel like science is not for them?

A: I might ask them why they feel that way.

But honestly, if something is your dream, you have to protect your dreams. We live in a time where people try to tell you what to do or who to be, but imagination is important.

Science isn’t just one thing. There is even a field called the philosophy of science that asks what science actually is. Is it a process? A system?

So science is really for everyone. It’s about curiosity. If you follow your interests and stay curious, you will find people and communities who support you.

Q: What would the world look like if everyone felt science was for them?

A: I think it would be more inviting and welcoming, and less about gatekeeping.

Information would be more open and accessible, kind of like an open-source mindset. People would ask questions out of curiosity rather than hostility.

Hopefully it would also make the world more empathetic.

Q: Do you have a science hero?

A: I tend to think about people close to me rather than historical figures.

Two people who really impacted me were Professor Fernando Nascimento and Professor Eric Chown from Bowdoin College. They were professors in digital and computational studies. They made me feel welcome and encouraged me to ask questions, which sometimes led to even more questions.

I also want to shout out Miss Emma Hera, my seventh-grade science teacher. She was incredibly patient with us, even though we definitely didn’t make things easy for her. Her empathy and dedication really stuck with me.

Q: What is your favorite thing about science?

A: Curiosity.

Science gives you the ability to ask questions and follow up on them. Curiosity helps you build connections — connections in your thinking and connections with other people.

Learning about cognition helped me understand that thinking itself is about making connections. Curiosity lets you create new ones and challenge the ones you already have.

Whether it’s talking with someone about birds or hearing someone’s story about a plant or animal they know, curiosity helps create those connections. That’s my favorite part of science.