In the News

04.30.2004

"Dr. Theodore S. Sergi, President & CEO, The Connecticut Center for Science & Exploration, Hartford"

by Teresa M. Pelham in Hartford Magazine

Ted Sergi told me that he really didn’t want me to include anything “schmaltzy” in this piece. He could have meant that he didn’t want me to write about the piano lessons his mother gave him in which she had him walk out the back door, knock on the front door, take his lesson, walk out and then come back in and say, “Hi Mom, I’m home.” Or the fact that he was stickball champion of PS 144 in Queens, went to college at the age of 16 after skipping two grades, and that all four of his Italian grandparents came through Ellis Island. Or maybe he was referencing his days as a dishwasher as a 12-year-old away at summer camp, or even his obsession with stone walls, walking sticks, Beethoven, Van Gogh and Morgan horses. Gosh, I wouldn’t dream of writing about any of that.

Connecticut’s former commissioner of education now sits at the helm of an ambitious and well-supported project whose board of trustees looks like a “Who’s Who of Connecticut Bigwigs.” Sergi, 55, has a view from his Columbus Boulevard office that might make others tremble: He overlooks a pile of dirt and a big yellow crane on the site that will soon become one of the state’s coolest field-trip destinations.

Hartford Magazine: You’re the head of something that doesn’t exist. Is that a little weird?
Ted Sergi: Well, it is. [Laughing] Except this idea has really been kicking around for 20 years. But I don’t find it uncomfortable at all. I think the challenge now is to raise the remaining part of the money, go out and do the architect-selection process and finish this program plan that sort of responds to what people have been saying–that it’s exciting and that it’s intriguing. We wouldn’t be as far along without the governor’s leadership.

If the governor were to leave office for any reason, how are you going to keep this project on course?
The commitment of the people on the board of trustees has been fantastic. I think this idea is bigger than any one person.

How much more funding is necessary?
We’re looking for $35 million or $36 million of private funding, but we also think that the federal government has a big interest in seeing this succeed. I think all of it is very doable in the next couple of years. We’re hoping to build a striking building that is a symbol of the state’s commitment to science and technology.

Will my kids still be kids when the science center opens?
They won’t grow up that fast. If we’re lucky— and we’re being optimistic—we’d like to break ground in 2005 and open in 2007. I think we’re on the right track now. Would it have been better to open in 2005 with the convention center? I think you almost have to get these going one at a time: The garage got going, and next will the convention center, then the hotel and then the science center.

Are you modeling this after an existing science center?
of the advantages of coming late that although we’re so far behind other cities and countries in terms of building a major science center, we can now look at the best the best—the exhibits that work the best and the themes that work the best. One of the most exciting centers in the country is a place called the Exploratorium” in San Francisco. It’s got to about inquiring and discovering and exploring.

What do you say to those who question having a science center as a major focus Adriaen’s Landing?
What Connecticut doesn’t have is a major science attraction. The science center has the ability to help both the education world as well as serve as an attraction for families and tourists, so that on weekends and in the summer you really are serving a large population. The need for this very clear. We know we’re not turning out a large enough proportion of young people interested studying science, math, technology and computer sciences. And that’s the stated purpose of the center –not just to increase the numbers, we want increase the proportion of our young people who choose to major in those things and then have them as a career. Other countries are so far ahead of us in somehow instilling a love and success those fields. You have to be comfortable with math and science. Were you mathphobic in school?

It wasn’t really cool for young girls of my era to get higher math scores than verbals on the SATs, so I think I was more math-averse.
I think we’ve changed that somewhat because on the SAT scores and the Mastery Test scores, you don’t see a big gap anymore. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with some of the population feeling more comfortable with the verbal side, but when we have turned off people from the quantitative side for the wrong reasons and haven’t given them that opportunity, we’re making a big mistake. Young people like to think they’re doing something new. Why are we so enamored with these pictures from Mars? Because it’s a new frontier.

So what’s going to happen to Science Center of Connecticut in West Hartford?
They’ve sold their buildings to Kingswood-Oxford. They have to leave there in 2009 and we’re working out partnership with them. They may stay in business at another location, dealing with smaller children; some of their things may come to us. We’re going to work that out. I think that all these science- type places can come together with an affiliation of some kind, where we could share things and reach more kids around the state. Science centers are now relying more on flexible, traveling exhibits. Mystic Aquarium is probably 85 percent fixed and 15 percent flexible. We may end up being the inverse of that. Things change so much in the science and technology world. We know we want to do something about the Connecticut River, something about human health, something about light, heat, motion and physics, but in 2007, I think our world will look a little different.

Is there more pressure in this job or in educating the entire state?
I put equal pressure on myself in both jobs. I spent half my life at the Connecticut Department of Education and it was a great place, where there was always a new challenge. I have challenges today and there will be challenges tomorrow.

A science center like this can do a lot for a region but you’re even hoping will strengthen our workforce?
Absolutely. And let me go beyond the fact that it will encourage more people choose to be engineers, scientists, mathematicians or engaged in technology. It really enhances the quality of life. Countries like Singapore have said that science and technology are so important us in terms of improving quality of life because they answer questions around health, around housing, around hunger and disease. Companies in Connecticut today have to go to India to find more chemists. It’s a national problem, but we should be leading the nation in finding ways to get more people interested in these sciences. We need to start earlier and give kids the right opportunities. As adults, we shouldn’t say, “I found math and science too hard.” We have acknowledge what an exciting road science is and that the answers are out there to be found.

Now just seven weeks into this job, have you learned anything new about science?
A lot. An awful lot. I’ve been trying to read everything I can. With the Internet, on a regular basis I can read a review top science stories from around the world, such as the development of a big fusion power plant, either in France or Japan, which might power the world in 2050. I’ve been inspired.

Teresa McCormick Pelham [tpelham@hartfordmag.com] has been a professional writer for more than a decade. Before becoming a freelance writer, Teresa worked as an advertising copywriter, reporter and photographer.