In a nutshell, describe your Teen Café program. What’s special or unique about it?
Our current program, which we call the Teen Programming Council, meets once a week throughout the school year (October-May) to plan 3 total Cafes for the year. This year’s cohort is 19 students, ranging from freshmen to seniors from Greater Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville. We recruit in the summer by sending out applications to local libraries, teachers, and our pk-12 network of educators. Our meetings generally consist of a check-in and splitting into groups for work time.
What’s your background? How did you become involved with your Teen Café program?
I was a biology major in undergrad at Northeastern, during which time I became very passionate about teaching. I became a classroom teacher in 2016 and transitioned to informal education at the MIT Museum in 2019. When the staff lead on our team left for maternity leave, I took over the program.
What organization provides a home for your Teen Café program? How do you see your program fitting with that organization’s mission?
MIT Museum’s mission of making science and technology accessible to all fits in well with the TPC, as our teens come from varying cultural, socioeconomic, and academic backgrounds. Through the cafes, they act as our ambassadors to the youth of the wider community.
What’s your biggest stumbling block as your program has developed?
Staffing can be a huge challenge, as our wider organization requires that there must be at least 2 adults present with minors at all times. This can be tough to organize, especially on days where we have other museum programs that also need staff.
What achievement are you most proud of with your Teen Café program?
I love seeing the relationships and community building happen between the teens during the course of the year. It’s wonderful to see more reserved students grow to be leaders!
What has been your favorite café and why?
Though it had some logistical issues, I loved our Forensic Science program last winter. The students set up the program as a murder mystery, and scattered clues in the form of different forensic activities (fingerprinting analysis, microscopy, footprint analysis) that students had to solve.
What is one aspiration you have for your Teen Café program and how will you manifest it?
I would love for the program to be a way for long-lasting mentorships to happen between the teens and the researchers we work with.
Do you have any advice for those just starting, re-starting, or sustaining their own Teen Café program?
I’ve learned it is super important to let the students take the lead as much as possible. A way we do this is by having the December event be more structured and staff-led to give students examples of how to plan, then let them take charge on the other two events.
