Press Releases
By: Camden Palm, MMA Director of Education “Grab your coats, it’s time for an outdoor adventure!” I hollered to students in the newly expanded MMA afterschool program, generously funded by the Massachusetts Afterschool Partnerships. Students scurried to their cubbies, and loaded up on layers- hats, gloves shoved in their pockets, jackets pulled over their sweatshirts. We embarked outside into a calm winter day. To Dead Horse Valley we go! We wandered down New Dollar Lane in our safety sandwich- a formation with one MMA staff member leading the front, one MMA staff member managing the back, and kids filling the middle. We passed Ham Pony Lot, and waved to the workers who were building an entry way wall on the way. We crossed Prospect Street and arrived at the freshly mended Dead Horse Valley hill. At least 3 students sped down with all their might. Today we embarked on a nature hike, the goal? Investigating signs of spring. . . We found snowdrops, and buds on shrubs, we discovered daffodil buds, and moss soft as a carpet. Each student had a magnifying glass in hand, and we wandered for a long while. Oh, what a day. Then, all of a sudden, a camper proclaimed “OH NO! I lost my glove!!” It was the epitome of a winter adventure and the case of the missing glove. Next thing we know we were testing our orienteering skills to retrace our steps. We passed the moss soft as a carpet, turned at the fork where the daffodil buds sprouted, waved to the patch of snowdrops, with no luck on the glove hunt. . . Each member of our team was fully invested. The last place to look was the bottom of Dead Horse Valley’s hill. Searching high, low, and in between, a student yelled, “I see something blue!,” and running commenced. Could it be the glove. . . Why YES, YES IT WAS!! Glove in hand our mission felt like an utter success, and just like that our after-school adventure had to wind to an end. After that day, more and more signs of spring came to the spotlight, and even a week or two later, some students wore only a sweatshirt while gloves and coats stayed in their backpacks. As we enter into April, I see more moments of light jackets and the glimmer of summer shorts. This winter has been full of programming including Afterschool Series, Winter Break programs, and another exciting Nantucket Science Festival. It has also been full of planning for our April programs and Summer Discovery Camps. The seasons change and more engagement is ahead. The best part is the unknown of what adventures will come, and what we will find or lose while we explore Nantucket.
By: Erin Holdgate, MMA Marketing Director Growing up in landlocked Denver, everything I knew about the ocean I learned slowly over time, one week a year, when my family would visit the birthplace of my father—Nantucket. Nantucket is a natural wonderland to me. It's where my deep gratitude, respect, and love for the ocean was born. It's why I dreamt of becoming a marine biologist despite living some 800 miles from the closest coastline. And when I was laid off from my corporate marketing job in the early months of 2022, after spending two-plus years working from my compact Seattle apartment, Nantucket is where I knew I had to be next. As a kid, everything about the island felt so foreign, and so hard to explain to my school peers back in the Rocky Mountain state. Although getting here is a journey in itself, the two-hour ferry ride was magical for me and all five of my senses. I'd get a seat on the top deck just to lean over the railing and watch the frothy waves slap against the side of the vessel; to feel the humid air take shape as beads of moisture on my forehead. And the salty air? It was unlike any other scent my olfactory system had the pleasure of knowing back in semi-arid Colorado. I never became a marine biologist like little-kid me planned, but I was able to curate a college education that combined my love of natural sciences with my writing skills. This launched me down a career path that ultimately led me to my current role as the MMA's Marketing Director—a job posting that felt more like an empty seat at the proverbial table that I swore was waiting for me, and I it. I came to Nantucket in May of 2022 in search of a post-pandemic reset, a summer job that didn't involve Zoom calls and my less-than-ergonomic home office setup. Through family, I was connected with the owner of Garden Group, who offered me a spot with his crews for the summer. As I became quicker at potting flowers and pulling weeds, I couldn't help but smile at the fact that I was handling roots all day, all the while getting in touch with my own. I have a local last name, and had I been born here, I'd be a sixth-generation Nantucketer. But the longer I live here, the more I realize I don't know—about the island, its history, its people, its way of going about life. Let alone the endless natural areas, trails, parks, and beaches I have yet to explore. I try to remind myself I'm in no rush to see it all, however. Mid-summer, when I told a friend I wanted to stay on the island beyond my summer job, she encouraged me to do so, telling me to be patient and "let the island show me" all of its opportunities. In the six months I've been at the MMA, I've used this as a mantra a time or two. Slow down, and allow the Grey Lady to reveal herself to me.
By: Dr. Regina Jorgenson, MMA Director of Astronomy Earlier this month, MMA Astronomy interns, post-baccalaureate research fellows, Director of Astronomy, Dr. Regina Jorgenson, Executive Director, Joanna Roche, and Director of Science and Programming, Jónelle Gurley, traveled to Seattle, WA for the ‘Superbowl’ of the astronomy world, the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting. The AAS meeting is the largest annual gathering of professional astronomers, this year seeing over 3,000 astronomers come together to share news of their latest and greatest research results. Exciting new results were presented in all fields of astronomy, but the highlight of this meeting were the many amazing new results coming from NASA’s new Great Observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), launched in December 2021. In addition to detecting and attempting to measure the atmosphere of the first Earth-like exoplanet, JWST is peering back into the early Universe farther than we’ve ever seen, giving us a glimpse at early star and galaxy formation. For a more detailed summary of the JWST results, listen to Dr. Jorgenson’s Looking Skyward interview here . All six of the MMA’s summer 2022 National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) interns attended the meeting and presented posters describing their summer research. Presentation results spanned a broad range, from understanding how star spots can affect the overall brightness of a star, to how a nova explosion expands into its surroundings, to a new method for finding supermassive black holes getting kicked out of their galaxies. Other work attempted to use X-rays to understand the properties of interstellar dust, image some of the first galaxies forming in the early Universe, and use cosmological simulations to help us understand the largest structures in the universe, galaxy clusters. During their poster presentations, the NSF-REU interns spoke with top researchers in the field, allowing them to make scientific connections and act as ambassadors for all of the amazing research being done at the MMA. The annual MMA Alumni and Friends Breakfast was a highlight of the week, bringing together approximately 30 REU alumni, mentors, and friends. Connections were forged and stories were shared of long-ago summers spent studying the universe under the dark skies of Nantucket Island. MMA REU interns in attendance include: Kate Shavelle, MMA Astronomy intern and Columbia University student Anavi Uppal, MMA Astronomy intern and Yale University student Devisree Tallapaneni, MMA Astronomy intern and Cornell student Will Jarvis, MMA Astronomy intern University of Wisconsin - Madison student Chris Chang, MMA Astronomy intern and Willamette University student Danya Alboslani, MMA Astronomy intern and University of Connecticut student