When Bert Vescolani was a teenager, his father owned a freighter that he kept off the coast of West Palm Beach, Fla. Vescolani sometimes would go along on summer trips to Caribbean islands.
“On the way to these beautiful places, you’d see dolphin, giant stingrays, huge sea stars (which are commonly called starfish),” Vescolani says. “My interest kept growing and growing, and as soon as I was able to get certified to become a diver (at age 18), I did. I fell in love with the ocean.”
Most of the year, Vescolani lived in landlocked East Lansing, Mich. He graduated from high school and Michigan State University there. He received a bachelor’s degree in education in 1988, with a concentration in science.
Aquatic science was only a hobby for him until 1990, when he was living in Chicago’s south suburbs and teaching high school science. A friend invited him to a lecture at the John G. Shedd Aquarium, on the city’s lakefront, and Vescolani has worked there ever since.
Starting as a volunteer, he is now curator of education, which he was appointed to in September 1994.
Vescolani and his 11-member staff plan programs for the 55,000 or so schoolchildren who visit the aquatic education center each year, develop weekend and evening fee-based classes for preschoolers through adults, and schedule teacher workshops.
Vescolani, 31, has visions of the aquarium being much more than just a popular tourist stop, and he is making some changes to achieve that goal.
“Having people come through the institution for one visit and then out the door is not the way, from an educator’s point of view, that we want people to use us,” Vescolani says.
“We have a special niche and the ability to let people learn more about how cool this whole aquatic ecosystem is, whether it’s salt water, fresh water, rivers, streams-it’s all here.”
One of the changes Vescolani has made is to increase outreach programs. Up to now, most of the educational programs were held at the aquarium.
He recently created the position of outreach coordinator and hired Bill Street to the position. Street will be working with Rhea Combs, who was hired to the new position of community education representative.
Their goals are to bring aquarium programs into schools and other places in the community, such as Chicago Park District facilities or YMCAs.
“We were doing bits and pieces of this, but I felt there was this gap, that we needed to do more,” Vescolani says.
In another change, he created the position of teacher services supervisor and named Cheryl Mell to fill it. Mell had been an aquarium instructor for four years.
In her new position, she writes a teacher newsletter, provides curriculum material on aquatic science to teachers who call with requests, schedules field trips and acts as a resource for teachers.
In February, the aquarium tried another new idea: an overnight program for teachers patterned after similar programs it has had for several years for families and adults. About 180 elementary and high school teachers took part. They were served dinner and participated in workshops. Vescolani was there and taught two sessions on how to create an inflatable whale in the classroom.
“He went around and sat with the teachers during dinner and spent the whole night and next morning with us, just like one of (the staff),” Mell says. “I can count on him to help with any program we have.
“Bert was a former teacher, so he knows what teachers need. And he’s very supportive of anything I come up with. His answer is never `No.’ It’s `How can we make this work?’ “
Vescolani’s attitude gains praise from staff members.
“Bert lets me have free rein,” says Robert Jessup, youth and family program coordinator. “It’s nice not to have a leash on you. He has an open mind as to what I can do, as long as it’s semi-aquatically related.”
Jessup develops curriculum and finds instructors for more than two dozen classes each quarter; nearly 75 volunteers and part-timers teach the classes. Examples of class topics for youth are rain forests and aquarium careers, and sea turtles and keeping saltwater aquariums for adults.
When Vescolani started college, he thought he wanted to become a doctor. But he really yearned to be a teacher, and his grandfather-who was the dean of education at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville-persuaded him to follow his heart.
So Vescolani dropped medicine his junior year and ended up with the education degree. He taught high school science in Detroit for a year, then took a job at Rich South High School in Park Forest to teach science and coach the gymnastics team. It was a good match, he notes, because he had been a scholarship gymnast in college.
It was while teaching and coaching at Rich South that he went to hear the lecture that rekindled his interest in the ocean. He immediately became a volunteer.
To begin with, he was an interpreter, explaining exhibits to visitors. About a year later, he applied for and obtained a part-time job in the education department, helping with adult and youth classes on weekends and evenings.
He was still teaching high school and coaching gymnastics-and soccer, too, now-but the hectic lifestyle was worth it because he loved being at the aquarium so much, he says.
In 1992, the position of youth program supervisor opened up, and Vescolani got the job and left Rich South. In 1990, he had moved to Chicago’s North Side, where he lives with his wife, Danielle, and 2-year-old daughter.
Once he came to the aquarium, “I wasn’t doing as much teaching anymore, and that was a big change because I love working with kids,” he says of his career switch.
“It was a tough decision to leave teaching, but I loved it here. You get to touch a lot of people and teach something many people know very little about.
“I left a group of 120 kids (at Rich South) whom you get to know very well over the year. I didn’t think the same thing would happen here, getting to know kids, but it did. There are a lot of repeat visitors, and you get to know not just the kids but the parents and families.”
Although Vescolani did some teaching while he was youth program supervisor, most of his time was spent supervising and developing programs. In a year, he doubled the number of classes to about 15.
In his enthusiasm to bring children into the programs, he took fliers to festivals, bookstores, community centers and anyplace he might find interested students.
The next year, he was asked to coordinate the public fee-based programs. His appointment as curator of education followed.
“He is infectious, in a good sense,” says David Lonsdale, executive vice president of the aquarium. “He has a lot of energy and enthusiasm, and his personality makes him good for the job.”
As curator, Vescolani interacts with many of the other aquarium departments. “Now, I’m interfacing with the planning and design department, with guest services-wherever there might be an educational concern.
“Exhibits are educational pieces, really. There are messages you want to send to the public and different ways of presenting things. We provide support for that.”
The aquarium has about 1.8 million visitors each year, and about 400,000 of those are schoolchildren.
Vescolani also still likes to find time to teach. This summer, for example, he led a program for a summer science camp at Foster Avenue beach on the North Side. The children studied what was in the water and talked about lakes. They used using water-sampling devices and nets.
He notes that his daughter has been to the aquarium so many times that she can point out and name several of the fish.
“She already knows the key phrases,” he says with a laugh.
If repeat enrollment is a sign of a program’s success, the efforts of Vescolani and his staff are paying off. There are many repeat students in most of the classes, Jessup says, and once people learn about the programs, they keep coming back.
Jessups adds that on certain weekends when there are no classes scheduled because of events such as Chicago Bears games, he hears about it.
“The kids will call and complain because they want to be here,” Jessup says.
Hearing about such things makes Vescolani’s eyes light up.
“Obviously, I think this is a great place to bring kids,” he says.
