Partner Spotlight: Luana España

How are you connected with CRS?

We partnered with CRS to connect our employees with local schools and to help students learn about the Port through hands-on science. I started to collaborate with CRS after seeing their program in action. I had the opportunity to shadow employees from a local company and saw how CRS provided opportunities for the company’s employees (not just scientists) to teach classroom science in an accessible way. It was impressive, and I felt I had found the key to make our whole staff feel comfortable delivering fun, hands-on science. I saw the impact of having employees connect with students and teachers and share their work experiences. I saw how even one presentation could make a significant difference.

What was your pathway into your current job, and how does STEM education fit into your work?

Like so many people, my pathway was not linear. It took me a long time to discover a career in community relations. After graduating from Occidental College with a degree in Politics and Spanish Literature, I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to research in Spain. Then I attended the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, focused on telecommunications and technology policy, and evaluated how new technologies impacted universal lifeline service policies at the California Public Utilities Commission. As an Eben Tisdale Fellow at Agilent Technologies in Washington, D.C., I continued explore technology and U.S. competitiveness policy.  In D.C., I saw how policy is made, and how people at the table determine what happens.

In the AT&T Leadership Development Program, I learned firsthand how to install and maintain cables, and saw how the technology of the internet and TV was changing. But something was missing, and I switched over to non-profit work, eventually moving into community relations at the Port. In this role, STEM education was important because the West Oakland schools are in a STEM corridor and teachers wanted to connect students to Port engineers and scientists. In California, STEM is important for almost any future job, and I was motivated to find a way to bring Port employees in STEM focused jobs into the classrooms.

Who inspired (or inspires) you, and why?

I was inspired by two of my teachers, Mr. Heinz and Mr. Rutherford, at Bancroft Middle School in San Leandro. Science was inquiry based, hands-on, and the experiments were so interesting. I still remember the banana breakdown experiment about composting. After the lesson, I went home and showed my parents the experiment, and they started to compost and recycle. Years later, when I came home on visits from college they continued these activities.

I was also inspired by the opportunity to explore the outdoors, and go to summer camp where I would take backpacking and wilderness survival classes in Yosemite. I became interested in plant usages, and started taking classes at the Kule Loklo, the reconstructed Miwok Village at Pt. Reyes National Seashore. I loved learning about different plants usages to make cordage, baskets or utensils.

Describe a unique experience you’ve had in connecting with science or the environment:

I didn’t realize until later in life, through community relations outreach and public policy that I could continue to connect with the environment and outdoors recreational activities professionally. I serve as Vice Chair on the Board of the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council and encourage communities to get out on the trails. In this role, the environment, science and land use issues all come together. It shows that science doesn’t have to be limited to science in a lab – science is everywhere, and having a good grasp of scientific concepts helps me to understand different types of outdoors issues and be an effective leader in that space.

Tell us briefly about one memorable experience you’ve had teaching science in local classrooms with your Port colleagues:

When I first came to the Port, I noticed that we could better reach out to the students that visited the Port for a tour. I realized that hands-on science and project based-learning is what connected for me in school and the outdoors. I felt that if we thought about the Port as a classroom that we could engage students and teach STEM concepts that are relative to the Port. We could bring to life challenges that Port employees deal with every day in an activity and students could begin to understand the Port and Port careers through completing the projects.

In the classroom, it has been wonderful to see colleagues share their work experiences with students. One of my colleagues worked with a student who was really struggling with his behavior and focusing on the activity. The Port employee encouraged the student to pursue his idea and the student built the most successful cargo container in the classroom. The student was beaming with pride because his creative idea lead to a successful project.

Later the teacher told me, that the students behavior and grades had improved. The student believed that he is good in science, sought out the challenging projects, and helped other students.  Also, after seeing his success with our hands-on lesson, the teacher recognized how to meet the child’s needs, and share that with the next grade teacher too. The experience had an impact on this student’s life.

I love to explore. Whenever I go to someplace new, I notice things that make me wonder. Like, why is the water so blue in the Canadian Rockies?  The discovery that science has given me is that inquiry-based learning can happen anywhere. I enjoy discovering new things all the time. I’m always interested in learning about the area, and in Hawaii I loved learning about the Polynesian Wayfinding tradition, using the sun, stars, waves and birds to navigate. I was amazed to learn about the people who can navigate across the ocean using only the stars at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. This past summer, I saw how a tradition inspired a modern voyage, when the traditional voyaging canoe Hikianalia entered the San Francisco Bay.

What is a goal for your future?

I would love to see students that we visited with CRS come back to work as engineers or environmental scientist sat the Port. It would be a great accomplishment to know that some of the students pursued science, Port careers, or thought of themselves differently after learning with us. I am happy I found a job where I can have an impact.