“The universe is full of light and mystery. Our Flying Cloud community—families, schools, staff, volunteers, artists, scientists—creates a constellation together that lights up our world with joyous exploration.” – Maria Rundle, Executive Director
As reported in MIT Professional Education, the gender gap in STEM is still gaping in 2023. In fact, the underrepresentation of women in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields not only persists but remains significant, with women making up only 28% of the STEM workforce. “This disparity is concerning, as it leads to a lack of diversity and inclusion, and ultimately limits the potential of the STEM industry,” writes Clara Piloto. “Addressing existing underrepresentation is critical as the world grapples with economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal, and technological risks. Closing the gender gap will not only bolster sustainable tech-enabled growth and innovation but is also deemed an economic necessity.”
In addition, rural students tend to face a number of challenges that can keep them from pursuing college degrees and careers in STEM fields. They are less likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to have family members or neighbors in STEM fields to serve as role models and their schools tend to receive less outreach and early exposure to STEM careers from industry representatives. Finally, students who attend lower-income urban schools with high minority populations earn STEM degrees at far lower rates than are their peers from higher-income, low-minority urban schools.
Flying Cloud Institute seeks to address these gaps by educating and empowering underrepresented youth [particularly, young women and youth in Pittsfield schools] to become creative thinkers and life-long learners. As Executive Director Maria Rundle explains, “Our science, art, and engineering programs build on young people’s natural curiosity and focus on stimulating their interest in learning and helping them develop self-confidence, collaborative problem-solving skills, empathy for others and insight into themselves, as well as other characteristics needed to become engaged adults active in their communities.” FCI also inspires public school educators to “bring this vision to life in their classrooms as well as the studios, woods, and laboratories of our shared community.”
An LCC grant and a simple goal
“It all started with a Local Cultural Council grant of $250 back in 1984,” co-founder Jane Burke smiles. When asked about her original vision, her answer is simple: Honoring children. “This organization was built out of love and authentic observation. I met kids from my town [New Marlborough] who had incredible potential but were floundering in school and decided to offer programs to help feed their creativity with hands-on learning in science and art.”
Burke, who holds a Harvard master’s degree in Science Education, was a dancer, potter, and chemist before starting Flying Cloud Institute. Her husband Larry earned an MFA in film from Columbia University School of the Arts, where he taught in the Film Division before teaching at Bard College at Simon’s Rock. Together with David Schwarz, they founded the institute in 1984 on the 200-acre “Flying Cloud” New Marlborough farmstead as a center for community education specializing in environmental education, energy and land conservation, and the arts.
“The first iteration of Flying Cloud was a dance and pottery studio, which we ran in our house for 6-7 local kids with minimal funding from Berkshire Taconic Foundation and the New Marlborough Cultural Council,” Burke explains. “While the Berkshire region was rich in arts offerings, it was a desert in terms of the sciences.” And so, the second year they expanded to 15-20 students and added science exploration. By the first summer program, it had a grassroots following of 55 kids—who heard about it by word of mouth or simple flyers hung at the local library and general store.
“From that point on, the structure built itself, based on the kids’ interests and the practitioners’ expertise,” Burke continues—practitioners like singer/songwriter Dory Previn and artist Cynthia Atwood, as well as professional Shakespeare & Co. actors and regional dancers. By 1990, they had an official summer program brochure and their first in-school residencies to help teachers cover required academic standards.
The focus on getting more young women involved in the sciences came about in 2000, inspired by a 7th grade girl with incredible potential, according to Burke. “We pulled together 15 middle school girls and connected them for a week-long lab program with New England college women working in the science professions.” A few years later, they added a week-long high school program, with a paleontologist, bacteriologist, physicist, and oceanographer.
Passing the torch to the next generation
In 2017, Flying Cloud moved its administrative offices to Great Barrington and Burke retired. Looking over their 30+ years, she notes, “It all started with a passion for helping kids. Then we started filling gaps in art and science programming, and later helping teachers by providing training, linking them with other like-minded teachers, and giving them opportunities to come together and feel supported.”
Maria Rundle grew up in Richmond and returned to the Berkshires in 2008 when she joined the staff at Gould Farm as Development Director. Her connection with Flying Cloud began because her daughter, whom she describes as “very bright in math and science, but under-challenged in school,” needed additional stimulation. On her third day in the FCI summer program, she came home and announced, “That was the best day of my life!” From that point on, Rundle and her family were hooked.
Baptism by COVID
Her leadership role took on a sudden urgency in 2020, when the pandemic shut everything down. “What Maria did was so Flying Cloud-like,” Burke commends. “In the middle of an impossibly challenging situation, she said, ‘Okay, if we need to be outside, we’ll be outside together—and whoever needs to be here will be welcome.’”
Rundle recalls thinking “If this isn’t our moment, why are we here?” And so, she collaborated with Ilana Steinhauer of Volunteers in Medicine–Berkshires and Will Conklin of Greenagers (as well as Berkshire South Regional Community Center and Flying Deer Nature Center) to create the Community Learning in the Berkshires (CLuB) program at April Hill Farm. Throughout the fall, winter, and spring of 2020-2021 (until schools fully reopened), they provided daily outdoor education in science and art, as well as support for remote learning for K-8 children from immigrant families and families with parents/caregivers serving as essential workers, health care workers, and educators so they could carry out their duties.
Massachusetts State Representative Smitty Pignatelli and The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education created a licensing path so they could run the program, Lit Net provided one-on-one tutoring, Berkshire Pulse provided instructors, and Local Cultural Councils provided grants. Berkshire Mountain Bakery donated 90 loaves each week, Gedney Farm donated snacks, Guido’s donated soups and stews, Berkshire Bounty supplied food to feed the families, and Jane Iredale bought boots, long johns, and coats. “I will forever be grateful that all these wonderful people came through for us,” Rundle says.
One central question, three life-changing programs
“The question at the heart of everything we do is: How do we create dynamic experiences for youth and educators to use science and art to problem solve?” Rundle explains. In answering that question, they have developed three streams of programming: Young Women in Science, Classroom Residencies and professional development, and Countywide Afterschool Programming (which includes MakerSpaces as well as winter, spring, and summer camps).
The Young Women in Science program—held every week at the elementary level in Lee, Berkshire Hills, Great Barrington, Southern Berkshire, Sheffield, and six schools in Pittsfield—offers hands-on science and engineering discovery for girls, led by experts in the field assisted by high school-age mentors (including many FCI alums). Anne O’Dwyer, PhD (Bard College at Simon’s Rock), analyzing data FCI has been collecting, found that the minimum dose for programming to be effective in developing confidence and raising career aspirations among girls is 16 weeks per year, or 20-24 weeks per year for more vulnerable girls.
The second area of programming is Classroom Residencies in grades K-8 to help students learn the state-mandated science-technology-engineering standards through hands-on investigation. In small teams, students explore and prepare to teach one of the science standards to their peers. “Then we hire a local artist to come in and help them express that experience artistically to engage both sides of the brain in the experience,” Rundle explains, adding “The combination of science and art offers a fresh perspective, deepens social emotional growth, and ensures the learning has a lasting impact.” In addition, FCI leads professional development training for teachers, enriching their experience as well as their students’ through the trickle-down effect.
In Flying Cloud’s Physics of Sound residency at Stearns Elementary School in PIttsfield, students participated in a series of hands-on sound and light wave investigations. Flying Cloud hired musicians like Jerome Edgerton of Youth Alive to use percussion as an anchoring phenomenon to understand energy transfer. They gave kids speakers, asked them to record themselves making sounds, then asked them to break the speakers down, examine the parts, and rebuild them. After they completed the task, they cued up and listened to what they had previously recorded. “That moment, and their excitement when they heard their speakers transmitting the sound waves, is hard for any middle school teacher to achieve on their own, but we can work with the schools, the teachers, the schedules, and provide kids a learning experience they’ll never forget,” Rundle explains.
Morningside Elementary School (Pittsfield) Science Specialist Sue Garcia, one of many teachers whose students have benefited from FCI’s programming, shares: “Flying Cloud’s programs have been so impactful for my students. I have watched as shy young girls found their voice and confidence through Girls Science Club to become leaders in my science classroom. They’ve learned how important science is to our world and that communication and cooperation are essential for progress to be made. Students who are usually disengaged come alive and participate in their programs and end up being shining stars that can then communicate the knowledge they have learned to their peers with confidence and respect.”
Finally, FCI is involved in Countywide Afterschool Programming, which includes MakerSpaces as well as winter, spring, and summer camps. “We bring all of these free programs to youth in schools, thereby eliminating access barriers,” says Amy Truax, Development Director. She adds, “We also refer to the children as young artists, scientists, and engineers—helping them build that sense of identity is important.”
Outlining future goals and deepening community partnerships
Over the last year FCI staff, directors, families, school partners, and friends came together to develop a Strategic Plan for 2023–2028. This May they announced the five overriding goals of their Strategic Plan:
- Expand access to FCI programs by reducing barriers to participation;
- Gain wide-spread recognition for FCI’s approach to steam education;
- Expand year-round programming to reach more youth;
- Improve diversity and community involvement in programs, planning, staffing, and governance; and
- Strengthen financial conditions to ensure long-term sustainability of operations.
“Following this plan will allow us to grow to serve more constituents and increase access to our creative science and art programs,” Rundle affirmed. As part of the Strategic Plan, they also developed a fun new logo “geared toward youth” (with gears included in the design) created by MoHo Designs.
“We are also forging deeper partnerships with organizations that are working on addressing similar issues,” Rundle explains. Although there are too many partner organizations to mention, she highlights a few—Berkshire Community College, Berkshires Hills Regional School District, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Berkshire United Way, Greenagers, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Massachusetts Cultural Council. Truax adds, “When we work together, we succeed together!”
The FCI ripple effect
“Flying Cloud Institute programs and partnerships have helped launch a generation of young people (particularly girls) from the Berkshire region into STEM fields. One-fifth of all jobs in the Berkshires are stem-related, and those jobs, even at entry level, pay twice as much as other jobs,” Rundle states. Employers in the region desperately need qualified workers, and women in the region (and beyond!) are still struggling—nearly 50 years after the Equal Pay Amendment was first introduced—to get paid fair wages. “This program is helping to break down barriers, which lifts the entire community. We are helping today’s businesses keep their doors open and investing in the future,” she adds.
“By introducing authentic hands-on challenges,” Rundle concludes, “we equip youth to solve complex problems, working with STEM community mentors and building real-world connections.” “The only real way to build self-esteem is to do something hard,” she maintains. “By guiding students to discover how to solve real problems, we are raising their self-esteem and instilling in them the creative collaboration they will need to save our species.”
