President’s Message

WE BELIEVE IN SCIENCE FOR ALL

Orlando Science Center creates an environment conducive to creating a better future. Through iconic experiences like hands-on exhibits, engaging workshops, live shows and demonstrations, we show how science and technology are solving problems and improving lives. We inspire and educate through events at the Science Center, within schools and community centers and even at community festivals. Our team is dedicated to being the spark that ignites the genius that resides in everyone.

However, if there’s no access to mentors, inspiration, and resources, then that potential can never be fully realized. It’s like Benjamin Franklin once said, “Genius without education is like silver in the mine.” Here at Orlando Science Center, we are prospecting that silver by working to provide access to individuals of all ages and backgrounds so they can explore, discover and learn. We believe in science for all.

Our efforts to increase access to valuable STEM learning include discounted admission for guests on the EBT food assistance program, sponsoring school field trips for Title I schools, and scholarships for lowincome students to attend summer camps. But access means more than just bringing students into the Science Center once or twice a year.

Real change happens when you make a strong connection. We want to provide culturally relevant experiences, so students understand why these skills are so essential. They need to see themselves represented in the opportunities presented by mentors that look like them. We want to overcome the barriers of cost and transportation by delivering impactful STEM learning several times a week at community centers within underserved neighborhoods.

Orlando Science Center is taking the next big step toward achieving science for all with the launch of our new Neighborhood Science program. It begins with an afterschool program in the Grand Avenue Community Center in the Holden Heights neighborhood, kicking off with authentic STEM programming several days a week throughout the year. A similar program will soon be launched at the Jacqueline Bradley and Clarence Otis Branch of Boys & Girls Club with more to come soon.

We are excited to get started on this new effort with special thanks to partners like NASA, Kiwanis Club of Central Florida Foundation, the DeVos Family Foundation, the Department of the Navy, the LEGO Group, and others for their generous support, including some multi-year commitments. With their help, Neighborhood Science is becoming another opportunity to kick off a lifetime journey of discovery.

Orlando Science Center is building a better future, one mind at a time.

Sincerely,