Jessica Brubaker's Year as a Fellow

I spent an incredible two weeks in Eastern Europe in early June. For the first week of my trip I was in Ljubljana, Slovenia at the Ecsite conference, which is the international association of science centers and museums. It was energizing and inspiring to be among peers from across the world exploring best practices in science engagement.

Highlights of the conference included a full-day workshop on “Crafting a Culture of Collective Creativity” led by experts in the field of maker education as well as sessions emphasizing the value of learning through play – a core value of Keystone Kidspace.

My second week was spent tracing the early life of my maternal grandmother who was a Holocaust survivor from Lodz, Poland. I had the privilege of visiting her childhood home, the building that she and her family were assigned in the Lodz ghetto, the Jewish cemetery in Lodz filled with her ancestors’ gravestones, and the camp at Auschwitz and Birkenau where her family lost their lives and she was fortunate to only spend a short time.

It was an extremely powerful and life-changing experience, and I am so grateful to the York Federal Fellows program for making it all possible.