Museum Honors National Hispanic Scientist Of The Year

Posted Nov 2, 2006 by Suzanne Schmidt

Updated Nov 2, 2006 at 12:53 PM

INES CIFUENTES SPEAKS TO 1,000 STUDENTS

By SUZANNE M. SCHMIDT
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A thousand children gathered at the Museum of Science & Industry to hear Ines Cifuentes, the National Hispanic Scientist of the Year, speak last week.
Cifuentes was the first Latin American woman to graduate with a Ph.D. in seismology from Columbia University in New York City. She currently works in Washington, D.C., as an education and careers manager for the American Geophysical Union with a focus on encouraging young Latino, black and Native American students. Cifuentes is also working on an English and Spanish language children’s book on earthquakes and tsunamis.
In addition to giving lectures to students, Cifuentes was honored as the National Hispanic Scientist of the Year for 2006 at an awards gala Oct. 28 at MOSI.
“We honor and showcase a national Hispanic scientist who has succeeded in the public education of science,” said Maruchi Azorin, founder and chair of the event, as well as the vice president of the MOSI board of directors. “She is a wonderful role model in terms of her tenacity. This award is about tenacity and the ability to overcome challenges.
“Because of her resolve and focus on education, she is a true success story. We are trying to reduce the drop out rate in the Hispanic community; it is at 30 percent.”
Cifuentes was excited and surprised about being chosen.
“MOSI is doing wonderful things bringing children in and teaching them,” Cifuentes said. “It was totally unexpected, and I can’t believe it. I am going to tell them about my story and how I became a seismologist. I want to let them know what it takes to become a scientist.”
Cifuentes’ main goal was to try to persuade the children she met to one day become scientists.
“I work with young people and encourage them to go into earth and space sciences,” Cifuentes said. “There are a lot of problems with our environment and we need young people to come up with new ideas on how to solve them. I meet all kinds of people in my work and you get to do lots of field work. It is an amazing job.”
“We have a thousand children from economically disadvantaged areas,” said Tanya Vomack, director of public relations and advertising at MOSI. “Many are the children of migrant workers and would not normally have the opportunity to come to the museum. We picked them up and brought them here through the help of sponsors.”
“One hundred percent of our students are from a Latin background,” said Adrian Aciar, a fifth-grade teacher at the Redlands Christian Migrant Association’s Wimauma Academy about being at MOSI. “It is good for them to see other people from the same background that have succeeded.”
“You get to learn about the body and different things,” said Jessica Velasquez, a fifth-grader at the academy. “I would probably want to become a scientist when I grow up.”
Fellow fifth-grader Emanuel Garcia said coming to MOSI was very fun.
“I like science, because you get to do experiments,” Garcia said. “I plan to go to college and maybe I would like to become a scientist.”
“It is great because they get to see a Hispanic person making a difference,” said Juanita Santana, Aciar’s aide. “They were really excited because most have never been to MOSI before. “
Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio had a chance to meet Cifuentes before she introduced her to the children.
“It is good the children get a chance to see a Hispanic scientist who is successful,” Iorio said. “She grew up loving science and they get to see that they can do it, too.”
During her presentation, Cifuentes told the students about how she first became interested in seismology.
“When I was in Chile as a child, there was the largest earthquake ever recorded,” Cifuentes said. “Where we lived there was some damage. Not like farther south, where there was a lot more damage. I could see the ground had moved and I thought it was really interesting.”
Cifuentes tried to get the students to understand what it would be like if the ground was moving beneath their feet and the type of damage that can do. She then got them thinking about ways to prevent that damage.
“We need to do better,” Cifuentes said. “Maybe when some of you grow up, you can help. Seismologists don’t know how to predict earthquakes. More people need to know what seismologists know and people need to learn what they can do to protect themselves.”
Cifuentes is the sixth Hispanic scientist of the year to be honored by MOSI. At event past honorees also present lectures to encourage students to stay in school and to assure students that despite their circumstances, they can realize their dreams.
For more information, visit http://www.mosi.org or call 987-6100.

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