Heritage Professional Development Stipend

PROJECT SUMMARY

Project Title

Black in Marine Science (BIMS) Professional Wellness Week

Project Description

Black in Marine Science (BIMS) Professional Wellness Week held November 26 to December 2, 2023. This opportunity will be located at Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel, 777 Waterside Drive, Norfolk, Virginia 23510. Tiffany will be an attendee at this professional development.

Amount Requested

$1,000

NARRATIVE

Goals

As a community educator, I am excited about the opportunity to engage, educate, and motivate the stewards of the future by promoting people's learning and personal development. My background includes curriculum building with community-based organizations, being a youth mentor, conducting research with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and working in conservation education with camps, zoos, and aquariums. My ultimate goals are not only to educate our future leaders, but also to ensure that underserved communities know that they too can participate in caring about our environment and be successful contributors to society. Currently, I am a Burke Mobile (outreach) educator at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, WA. My duties include supporting and facilitating educational programs at the Burke Museum and in the community. Serving the community by providing firsthand experiences with fun, tactile lessons and mini-museum programs to PreK-12 to adults. Working onsite at the museum as well as offsite including at schools, libraries, family program events, summer and break camps, virtual programs, field trips, and collaboration with Burke Boxes. I also plan, organize and implement community events and outreach to other museums in Washington state.

I am a Black woman in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Design and Mathematics (S.T.E.A.M) and a first-generation college student who comes from a low-income family background. I am passionate about giving back to our communities by acting as a positive role model and a resource for youth. I have worked hard to get resources and now am able to become a resource for others. I wish to participate in opportunities that align with my core values and represent my lived experiences. At the Black in Marine Science (BIMS) Professional Wellness Week, I will be immersed around people, culture, food, language and interests that represent me as well as uplift my lived experiences. I look forward to attending presentations, workshops, as well as networking plus connecting with community and partners. I look forward to the opportunity to build relationships and learn more from other scientists in turn to have the ability to create effective affinity spaces and curriculum for Burke Mobile programs and inclusive events along with my team. This professional development opportunity will also give me exposure in how to create more sustainable partnerships across the nation. Trust takes time, space and energy. I want to be a sponge and absorb as much as I can while at BIMS Week. Due to the plethora of activities at BIMS Week such as community dinners, galleries, workshops, field trips, royal ball, and self-care meetings, I feel this wellness week will be an enriching space for me to heal and co-exist without being under the white gaze or pressure. Rest is not the reward of the process; it is part of the process. BIMS Week will be a much-needed affinity space for me to be in.

Field Needs

As one of the four Black people who are staff at the Burke Museum, I strive to create affinity spaces and support with culturally relevant programming onsite and offsite. Equity, justice and inclusion is part of who I am and what I do. Being present and being representation for others is a core value of mine. I grew up around a mix of people including Black/African diaspora, Mexican, Japanese, and Korean cultures and languages. I am also a first generation college student. As a person that holds different intersectionalities, I become the liaison, the access, the resource to bring our communities forward while also being able to work in academics and institutions. We are all knowledge holders so the concept of people being in a deficit is incorrect. The deficit mindset is put upon underserved communities by white privileged centered systems. The focus should be more on resources that are lacking due to historic and present systemic matters. Yet people still thrive and are resilient. I enjoy paying homage and doing reciprocal work for where I come from and where I am now. By seeing themselves represented and valued people will be happier, more engaged and motivated. I wish to participate in professional development that supports me as a person and my work. Representation is very important and it is a part of who I am and what I do. I have a Bachelor's in Marine Science and Master's in Education in Curriculum and Instruction. The field of marine science is largely dominated by white folks. We often hear that Black marine scientists don't exist. BIMS is here to prove that we do exist as well as amplify and lift up each other. Diversity in people increases diversity in thought in turn creates better science. This BIMS week will be an event where scientific thought leaders and environmentalists come together to network, share experiences, and participate in a variety of activities that inspire and also offer self-care. As a community educator, with my 8+ years of education experience and academic learning, I will always continue to welcome various ideas and perspectives and strive to make space for others. I am constantly improving myself to make education fun, accessible, and culturally responsive through my lived experiences as a Black person while learning and training to advance my career. Professional development is crucial to the employment pipeline. Training and skills development can go a long way with any position. I believe BIMS Week is an opportunity that will enhance my knowledge, skills and abilities to continue to be a culturally competent educator to further the Burke Museum's mission. As I know BIMS Week will provide learning and practice to enhance levels of self-identity, social justice awareness, academic performance, problem solving, networking, and healing. In the future, I wish to collaborate with federal, state, non-profit organizations and community-based organizations that foster environments of success for teaching, mentoring and learning for youth and adults of color.

Use

I endeavor to work toward reducing inequities and creating opportunities in communities around the world. My years of experience in informal education and the field of science taught me to use my skills and life experiences to collaborate and improve how partners and I approach the needs in education. Doing BIMS Week, I will be exposed to a diversity of thinkers and knowledge holders. I wish to make partnerships, seek out mentors, and gain instructional advice. After attending BIMS Week, I will present to the Burke Museum’s education department at our next team meeting to share my experience. With my experience of connecting with others, I will be able to be more thoughtful around maintaining affinity spaces at work and adding to our education department’s Community Care Plan. The Burke Museum is not always the most welcoming space and is very white centered. As an educator onsite and offsite, I must manage dynamics with clients, schools, museum attendees, teachers, youth, and admin. Our education team wants to be better, and we want to have clear plans for when harm is caused. As a result, I wanted to create a framework of managing internal and external dynamics. This framework includes adding community agreements, land and labor acknowledgements, resources when you cause harm or when you are harmed, self-work resources and problem-solving techniques to co-exist with different people. BIMS Week will be an opportunity to ask people how they prepare, cope, recover, heal, learn and challenge the status quo while surviving and thriving as a Black identifying person.

In my early stages of being a marine scientist, I felt a lack of community engagement therefore I transitioned to more education-based work like being a camp counselor, mentoring, public facing jobs at the aquariums and zoos, as well as volunteering at community based-organizations. As I tried different jobs, I strived to make learning accessible through different approaches such as taking care of the whole person, processing time, outside time, easy to make supplies, and making activities that were tactile. As a valuable Burke Mobile team member, I co-create curriculum and support implementation. With my past professional development experiences, I have been able to weave in skills to best teaching practices. I hope BIMS Week is where I can learn from other people who are on a budget and learn how to get supplies/resources for their programming in an inexpensive way. I am very resourceful. From BIMS Week, I will also use the learning of marine science information and studies to strategize on how to present that to different aged audiences or people who are under-resourced to take field trips to the beach or aquarium or be on boats. For example: like having a fish lesson, when you don’t have access to real fish. In the past, I have partnered with people like US Fish and Wildlife to obtain salmon to do salmon dissections at Black and Brown schools in Portland, OR. We would also watch videos, look at printed photos, make our own fish with class materials, and even act as fish. I really enjoyed bringing in community guest speakers and being a guest speaker myself to teach more about fish. Education does not always require expensive toys to engage people.

I can learn much from other educators at BIMS Week in creating and gathering supplies that can be accessible for intended audiences. Since the early 2000s every year, Burke Mobile visits Northwest School for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children in a span of 5 weeks to deliver 5 science lessons to each grade Pre-K to 8th. We act as their only science curriculum for the year. This year, I created and implemented a marine science curriculum. The lessons were 45 min long with topics about birds, marine mammals, fish, and plankton along with displaying a mini museum called Nature's Networks in the last week. Lessons included tactile things, fish toys, museum collections, played games, furs, puzzles, and making plankton with playdough to test their floating accuracy in a tub of water. It was a lot of fun. I enjoy using my resourcefulness to enrich programming that is relevant to the audience and also encourage them that these activities can be done at home, or you can teach them to others. I will continue to use my skills and seek out opportunities like BIMS Week to access knowledge about challenges and also the rewarding aspects of why we do the work we do. At the Burke Museum, I am also assisting with the co-creation of the Burke Mobile's next mini-museum pilot called Nature's Networks. This pilot includes about 6 tables of collection pieces and interactives categorized into 8 habitats including marine, plateau, my backyard and forest. Using my skill set I assist with layout and activity design along with gathering information for writing labels and signs. I also support outreach and organization in events and partnerships such as Latino/a/x Science Fair, Black Teachers Workshop, Future Teachers of Color education event, Seattle Public Library Summer Reading event as well as a variety of other programs at the Burke Museum intended to welcome and appreciate diversity and inclusion. I believe BIMS Week will be a great source to interact with other community organizers and event planners to learn what they do and how. I wish to stay connected with people I meet there and hopefully collaborate in the future.

Funding

I currently work part time at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture. The museum does have limited professional development funds upon request. I applied for professional development funds on September 22. I requested funds for registration, lodging, transportation and per diem for meals making that a total of about $2,300. Professional development requests at the Burke Museum will be prioritized by:

You are giving a presentation or participating on a panel.​
You have not received professional development funding in the past year.​
The conference or professional development opportunity relates directly to your work.​
You have secured partial funding from other sources to support your participation.​I am only an attendee. I will not be presenting or participating on a panel. I have never requested/received funding for professional development since the start of my position in January 2022. Yes, this professional development relates directly to my work. The Burke Museum has a new policy where professional development requests will be accepted either in the month of August or January. Seeing how this opportunity does not fall within those two time periods, my manager is speaking with the director's team about possible exceptions and next steps. The process for approval or rejection takes approximately 15-20 business days. I am awaiting next steps.

Project Budget Notes

The 4Culture funding will support lodging, transportation, and food for the BIMS Professional Wellness Week. Lodging is a total of $903 (before taxes) at a rate of $129/night for 7 days at the Sheraton Norfolk Waterside Hotel. According to the BIMS website, the hotel must be booked by November 6 in order to utilize the group rate at $129/night. Transportation will be between $700 to $850 for a round trip flight from Seattle, WA to Norfolk, VA. This price may shift depending on the weekend prices around the national holiday. I wish to arrive in Norfolk, VA before 4pm EST on Sunday, November 26. I am also requesting funds for food during my 7-day trip. Food will be a total of $210 for $30/day for 7 days.

On September 20th, I applied for the BIMS Week scholarship to request support for registration, lodging, and transportation. I am awaiting next steps.

On September 22nd, I applied for professional development funds at my current part time job, the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, WA. I requested funds for registration, lodging, transportation and per diem for meals. As a part time staff, I am allotted a certain amount of work hours during professional development opportunities.

As a BIMS member, I received a $350 registration discount instead of paying the full price of $750 for non-BIMS members. The registration fee of $400 for the early bird special was due on September 30th. On September 27, one of my martial arts teachers provided funds to pay for my registration therefore I was able to fully register by September 30th. As of now, I am registered and awaiting support funds to purchase my accommodations and flight for the BIMS Professional Wellness Week.

URL's

blackinmarinescience.org/bimsweek2023
blackinmarinescience.org/hotel