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I'm Ernesto Vargas.

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I'm 19 years old and I'm from Oklahoma City.

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My seventh grade geography teacher, Ms. Fox,
handed me a flyer that, in her words, was

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perfect for me.

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And that was Oklahoma Science Adventure back
in 2008.

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And Oklahoma Science Adventure is one of the
middle school programs at the Sam Noble in

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the ExplorOlogy program, and through that
program I was able to travel the states along

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with museum faculty to do science, which included
jumping in the ponds and examining fossil

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track lays.

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That's my first experience with the museum,
a fantastic one.

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The museum's programs have influenced me greatly.

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Through these programs was the first time
I asked myself, what is science?

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What does it mean to be a scientist?

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What do I wanna do in the field?

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And through these programs, Paleo Expedition
and Oklahoma Science Adventure, was when I

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reconciled these questions and I believe that
helped me grow as a person.

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What I gained from them was a passion for
science and a passion to share that with others

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and this of course includes team building,
confidence building and building relationships

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with others.

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I think that the museum serves the function
of being a gathering place for people really

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of all ages that want to pursue learning,
educational resources or just build connections

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with their community.

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And whether it's just the city of Norman,
the state of Oklahoma, the scientific community,

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I think it fulfills its function above and
beyond.

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In my third year of participating in programs
at the museum, which was Paleo Expedition

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as a peer mentor to other students, I remember
digging fossils in the Oklahoma panhandle,

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specifically Jurassic dinosaur fossils, and
then at that moment I realized that I was

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more excited than other students having and
just experiencing these things and myself

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experiencing them.

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I think that's when I realized what I wanted
to do with my life.

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It's, make these experiences available to
other people and make sure they learned the

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lessons I learned in these programs.

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I worked as a docent in the Hall of Ancient
Life and I spend around 100 hours talking

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with people, just sharing the experience with
others.

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I think that may have been my favorite part
of the museum 'cause of how much interaction

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I've had with the community there.

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The win for the Sam Noble Museum is also a
win for the community because it shows how

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integrated the museum has become in this community
and this could only further show how programs,

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such as, ExplorOlogy, other events, social
media, even volunteer programs further influence

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this community.