How finding “pockets of yes,” nurturing growth, and sharing joy lead to successful partnerships
Rachael Van Schoik
Rachael Van Schoik (she/her) served as Science Action Club Program Manager at the California Academy of Sciences from 2019 to 2024. Her professional portfolio integrates strategic partnerships, designing for scale, and increasing equity in sciences. Contact Rachael at rachaelvanschoik@gmail.com.
As a seasoned conference presenter and exhibitor, I always joke that the lull between conference sessions is “introvert hour” when people can engage with booths and vendors at their own pace. I’ve always enjoyed these periods and found them to be when I often have the most fruitful conversations. During one such lull at the Best of Out-Of-School Time (BOOST) conference in 2023, I found myself excitedly connecting with someone over bug collection and community science. Speed ahead past a handful of subsequent planning conversations, and that initial conversation eventually yielded a state-wide, high-impact partnership between the California Academy of Sciences’ Science Action Club (SAC) program and Think Together, a California-based nonprofit, to bring nature engagement to their expanded learning programs across California.
Designed in 2011 for middle school youth in out-of-school time (OST), SAC kits feature games, projects, and hands-on investigations that inspire wonder for the natural world. To date, SAC has engaged over 4,500 clubs from New York to Alaska and California, and even as far as Spain. In our 13th year, we have built our largest footprint yet with over 820 clubs internationally and a pipeline of 430 clubs for next year.
Think Together’s mission is to partner with schools to change the odds for kids, and they currently serve 200,000 youth from San Diego to the Bay Area.
What does the partnership look like?
After meeting a handful of times virtually, it became apparent that centering community was central to both of our work. Think Together’s focus on designing a “community where all kids get a great education that prepares them for college and career” complemented SAC’s mission to “mobilize diverse communities to…advocate for nature in the Golden State” and engage with community science. This common ground anchored our partnership goals in what we both envisioned: Healthy youth and healthy natural environments.
At a practical level, we agreed to bring SAC’s three bilingual English/Spanish community science units to all 350 Think Together 5th-grade sites across California. Through SAC, Think Together youth get outdoors to embark on a backyard bug safari using the iNaturalist platform, share atmospheric observations with NASA, and post avian observations to eBird.
What components led us to be agile?
A colleague years ago shared how they kept so close to their tight mission: “A flexible program model is a never-ending target.” In this, they meant they knew their mission, their audiences, and their goals—and stuck to those, opting for depth within their work, not breadth. SAC also embodies this; we do what we do well and stick to our parameters: middle school, STEM and community science, OST.
We’ve come back to these central goals again and again. For example, during the pandemic, we conducted listening sessions with educators and partners to see if the OST space still needed community science and our program model. We heard a resounding “yes”; people were craving high-quality science designed by experts and implemented locally with a backbone of engaged and supportive staff. They shared how the process of engaging with nature could be healing, and the practice of community science led to both youth and staff having and growing their own STEM identity. All of this grounded and informed our outreach, marketing, and networking to have SAC be set up to jump on the large partnership opportunity with Think Together.
Lessons I’ve learned
This partnership landed me in the most successful year of my career growing the program to the widest geographic footprint it’s seen in 13 years. I can’t help but feel grateful and reflective to the ways I’ve grown alongside SAC. I wanted to share a few things I’ve learned in this partnership arc.
First, make your expertise welcoming. Since we don’t know the walls people perceive that impact their ability to lead and engage with science and nature, one invitation could be the way to break down barriers and mirror your expertise in others. We encourage youth to be anything—while often limiting ourselves, but even adults must continue to nurture and share expertise. Thinking back to my experience in the BOOST exhibit hall in 2023, I was sharing how to use a “pooter” for bug observation with visitors. This eclectic collection technique was a bridge to insects, community science, and the (often) intimidating world of science.
Lastly, find the “pockets of YES!” that not only align with your work and mission, but also with what gets you excited. If we are doing the work, let us be thrilled to work through the hard moments to see the rewards. When we found mission alignment with Think Together, I found my “pockets of YES!” to bring SAC to all their sites, not just a few, and another to use our bilingual resources, to invite all learners into the project.
Postscript
Science Action Club came to a close in June 2024 after 13 successful years engaging thousands of youth and educators internationally in STEM education.
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