Wexford’s Chief Community Officer Talks Successes in Other Cities

By Tanya Perez

A regular topic of discussion among the planners of Aggie Square surrounds opportunities for youth. Specifically, what might kids in kindergarten through 12th grade be able to participate in at Sacramento’s future innovation hub?

From the beginning, Aggie Square has been envisioned as a place which will invite the community to be part of engaging, enriching programs. And that means local children, as well.

Luckily for the project, development partner Wexford Science & Technology has a lot of experience in this arena.

Said Travis Sheridan, chief community officer for Wexford, “In finance, past performance is not indicative of future results. But in behavior, past performance is the best predictor.”

With that in mind, Sheridan had some success stories to share about Wexford projects in other cities that give an indication of what kinds of programs might work in Sacramento. He provides one caveat, though: “How it (youth programming) manifests in a community is really driven by a community’s needs.” Thus, the examples below are meant to illustrate what has worked well in other cities and to spark the imagination of what might work here.

“How youth programming manifests in a community is really driven by a community’s needs.”  
— Travis Sheridan, chief community officer, Wexford Science & Technology

Sheridan first talked about a program that took place at Wexford’s innovation district in St. Louis — known as Cortex — as an example of helping “close the gap between industry and education.”

Staff at Cortex worked with St. Louis public school teachers and educators. “We had 20 of their teachers participate,” Sheridan said, “in an education innovation fellowship program.” This six-week summer program, which came with a $5,000 stipend, placed teachers within a startup company or on a corporate innovation team.

“One social studies teacher helped a startup by doing research for market expansion,” Sheridan explained, and another educator worked with a startup to develop the company’s new-hire orientation materials.

“And a science teacher worked with a biotech company,” he continued. “If you think about it, the last time that many science teachers practiced industry science was probably as undergrads or grad students. This allowed (the teacher) to have more practical experience to take back to the classroom.”

Sheridan believes that this programming for educators has a valuable upside.

“While we of course think it’s important to have programs for kids,” he said, “if you serve 20 kids, you serve 20 kids. But if you serve 20 teachers, you serve so many more … it infuses much more into the education system.”

Of course, Wexford projects also have programs directed at students, like FirstHand, based at Philadelphia’s Science Center in the University City innovation district.

FirstHand began for middle-schoolers but has extended to high school students. “Wexford helped support the creation of a 5,000-square-foot lab space, a STEM lab,” Sheridan said, where students come twice a week during school for a “pullout program.”

While at Science Center, students participate in hands-on experiments which augment classroom experience, and which includes mentoring from some of the scientists, designers, entrepreneurs and engineers who are affiliated with Science Center. Their classroom teachers also participate.

Among the benefits to the free program — there is no cost to the schools or students — are exposure to more STEM opportunities and to more mentors. Said Sheridan, “We wanted the program to move beyond career days and field trips. Those are valuable, but let’s offer more immersive interaction.”

A youth program at Miami’s Convene innovation district is another good example of tailoring it to what would work in that community. 

“When programming launched in Miami, one of our programming partners, Venture Café, included a youth focus as part of its weekly gathering,” Sheridan said “and it focused on innovation, STEM, entrepreneurship, etc. It happened concurrently with programming for adults in other parts of the district.”

Sheridan said that children can come with parents and take part in their own programs while parents participate in workshops on things like innovation, startups and networking.

Added Sheridan, “We respond to a community’s needs.”