St. Louis Science Center cancels MLK Day showcase, halts YES teen program

One month ago today, the Saint Louis Science Center convened a meeting of staff assigned to its Community Science program—and then informed all of them they were being let go, effective immediately. 

The staffers supervised the science center’s long-running Youth Exploring Science program, better known as YES, which supports local students from underserved communities with mentoring, science experiences, and paid employment that lasts throughout all four years of high school. Three days after staffers were laid off, all the youth were informed by email that the program was being paused, and their participation was no longer needed.

For decades, the Saint Louis Science Center has hosted a Community STEM Showcase on Martin Luther King Jr. Day—something Community Science staffers and YES teens had both been preparing for for months. That event has been canceled as well. 

Nicole Adewale, a former science center trustee and longtime community partner to the YES program, says she’s concerned about the abrupt cancellations. She has volunteered for the program for more than two decades, and her daughter is an alumnus. She only received notification last week that the Martin Luther King Jr. Day event would not take place. 

“This was one of their biggest visit days of the year, “ Adewale says. “Thousands of people come through.” She says she was blindsided by the cancellation, saying, “We were just shocked and disappointed to learn that this annual event that we advertised to our network was not going to happen.”

Adewale says she is also worried about the YES program participants, particularly the older students who’d devoted years to it. “We got 90 students who had committed to this program who no longer have anything to help them,” she says. “My concern is for these students who were dropped without any kind of transition plan.” 

Reached for comment, the Saint Louis Science Center provided a statement by Dr. Lamara D. Warren, managing director of DEAI. She wrote, “The Community STEM Showcase has been one way we have marked this day, and we recognize its importance to our community,” she said in an email. “As we continue to evolve our approach, our focus remains on honoring Dr. King not just through a single event, but through ongoing access to STEM learning, inclusion, and opportunity for all.” She did not mention that the YES program had been put on ice. 

When SLM reached out again to ask about those changes, the science center’s marketing director replied with an email saying that the program had “NOT been eliminated” but was instead “paused to redesign the program to ensure it better serves the needs of young people for years to come.”  Warren later followed up to say that families had been “made aware” that the science center was planning on a redesign of the program that would take eight to 12 months: “As noted, we will design the new program format in cooperation with our community, seeking input from different stakeholders (including interested YES participants and parents from the former structure) throughout the process.” The science center did not respond to our question about the staff positions that were eliminated.

Lauren Patrick was first hired for YES as a college-age intern, and over the course of 14 years, worked her way up to program manager. She says she and the half-dozen other staff members who were let go on December 16 were blindsided by the announcement. (She can only speak for herself, but says she was given no severance and no reason for her dismissal other than that her position was being eliminated.) 

A few days later, she began to hear from YES teens who were stunned that their program had abruptly ended and their participation terminated in a group email. Even though she no longer had a job, and was dealing with her own abrupt ending, she offered to write them letters of recommendation.

“The YES teens have always been amazing workers, amazing students,” she says. “It was super exciting to see their eyes light up when we would do hands-on experiments.” She loved watching as some of the youth members grew up to study science in college or pursue careers in STEM as adults. The program fostered multi-generational success: Sometimes, graduates’ children would go on to participate. That’s one reason Patrick ended up staying for year after year. “I’m a millennial,” she says. “So to keep a job for 14 years? Not many of my friends can say that.” 

She’s now looking for work. As an educator with a master’s degree in secondary education, it feels like the worst possible timing: Few, if any schools, are hiring for permanent positions this late in the school year. 

But more than that, she worries about the students she got to know. “They were anticipating this to be an experience through high-school graduation, and they’re doing their best to map a pathway forward of what the teens can do now that’s still academically focused and will still help open doors for college and beyond,” she says. “But a number of families have reported to me that they feel like they’re in a bind.”