Where energy meets the arts: Avangrid & Yale’s Peabody Museum provide ‘transformative learning experiences’ for New Haven youth
Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University is one of the world’s oldest and largest university museums of its kind. Home to over 14 million objects and specimens across 10 distinct collections, it preserves and displays more than four billion years of Earth and human history.
Peabody’s EVOLUTIONS program (Evoking Learning and Understanding through Investigations of the Natural Sciences, or EVO for short) is a free youth program for New Haven and West Haven high school students.
The Avangrid Foundation is a proud supporter of EVO, which offers a rich, informal learning environment for 100 of the most passionate, high-potential teens in New Haven. Through weekly after-school classes, weekend job opportunities, and summer internships, students work collaboratively with peers, museum educators, and scientists.
The museum seeks to create a safe physical and social space that offers access to cutting-edge scientific research and access to cultural artifacts and natural history collections. The EVOLUTIONS space is co-created with students from New Haven and West Haven, who will become the next generation of science communicators, policy-makers, artists, community leaders, educators, and researchers.
“Our partnership with Avangrid allows really transformative, meaningful learning experiences to take place and give New Haven youth their first experience in the workforce,” said Andrea Motto, Ph.D., Asst. Director of Public Education & Outreach at the Museum. “The Peabody Museum is a place where everything and anything is possible.”
The project includes supporting the work of Avary Taylor, PhD (pictured right), the Avangrid Postdoctoral Associate at Yale’s Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH). Taylor’s groundbreaking research includes the study of centuries-old Assyrian reliefs. Through this collaboration, in addition to conducting his research, Avary worked closely with the students in the EVO program to share his research through classroom sessions and engaged them in the process of creating educational materials on the exhibit for visitors to the museum.
“This project increases access to the arts and educational resources for the youth in our community,” said Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra. “Our collaboration provides not only employment opportunities, but also exposes young minds to potential careers in science, technology, and the arts. Through collaborations like this one, we illuminate paths for the next generation, proving that when energy meets the arts, the future can be brighter.”
“For us, it’s investing in the next generation, period,” said Pablo Colón, Avangrid Foundation Executive Director & Director of Corporate Citizenship at Avangrid. “Providing students with access to scientists and researchers like Avary gives them a window into what’s possible when it comes to careers in the arts and sciences.”
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Learn more about the Avangrid Foundation here.
