My name is Amelia Lake, and I am a rising junior at Lacordaire Academy in Upper Montclair. I enjoy writing, playing piano and hiking, but my greatest passions are genetics, neurolinguistics and anthropology.

This summer, I had the privilege of participating in Liberty Science Center’s first ever Summer Teen Docent program, where high school students spend five weeks volunteering as exhibit guides to help interpret information and enhance the guest experience. I was introduced to the program by my biology teacher, Dr. Zinman, who worked in the LSC Summer Science Camp.

To me, the Summer Teen Docent program seemed like the perfect opportunity to give back to my community, get some hands-on experience working in STEM fields and connect with other teens who shared my interests and passions.

With every day spent working at Liberty Science Center, I became increasingly amazed at the sheer variety of guests who walked through the doors. Liberty Science Center is a place of passion, curiosity and a desire to learn for the sake of learning, and its visitors are as inquisitive and knowledgeable as they are diverse.

At the Honey Bee exhibit, I had an in-depth conversation about the inner workings of a bee colony with a group of amateur beekeepers from England who took up the hobby in an effort to preserve declining bee populations. At Energy Quest, I gave a tour of our model nuclear reactor to a young girl with aspirations of becoming a nuclear engineer who dazzled me with her precocious knowledge of nuclear reactions and power plants. At the Bodies exhibit, I discussed the discovery of vaccines and the functions of the immune system with an older gentleman, who I later learned was a retired doctor.

A particularly favorite interaction of mine was with a visiting French-Ecuadorian polyglot family in the Infection Connection exhibit. While I gave a presentation on the microbes and bacteria that reside in the typical kitchen to the father, the mother translated my words into French for her eldest son, who proceeded to relay the information to his brother in Spanish.

Later on, I was able to practice my French by guiding a visiting Parisian woman and her young daughter through the same exhibit and translating instructions to a minigame in which participants examine and diagnose virtual “patients” with various diseases.

People from all corners of the United States and countless countries around the world come to visit Liberty Science Center, bringing their knowledge, curiosity and languages. The sheer linguistic diversity one can find here makes my inner anthropologist sing with joy. Our guests, who are so open-minded and enthusiastic about learning, have made my job an absolute delight.

To learn more about the Summer Teen Docent program at Liberty Science Center, click here.