Putting the “Do” in “Think and Do” at Reach for the Stars
In honor of last year’s pet plants Marco and Polo (RIP), I attended the third annual Reach for the Stars! Be a Star! event held April 12, 2025, at the McKimmon Center. Catered towards K-12 students, the Reach for the Stars fair advocates for and serves students with disabilities interested in the STEM field. At the lobby area, I was greeted by the hosts of the event and was given a string bag filled with goodies and raffle tickets for the many raffle drawings and prizes throughout the duration of the fair. My first stop was the presentation room where I had the opportunity to listen and learn from a few of many presenters.
Beginning her presentation at 10:00 AM, Christina Bauman with the City of Raleigh Municipal Government spoke about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The talk discussed the history of ADA, those protected under the act, and about the accommodations that best meet the needs of people with disabilities, such as American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, braille, and allowance of service animals in establishments, as a result of the act. Taking the podium after Christina Bauman, Angela Martin with Lenovo spoke about the importance of providing accommodated technologies for people with disabilities. With their dedication to inclusivity, employees at Lenovo provide yearly reports about their efforts in upholding Lenovo’s motto—Smarter Technology for All.
For the next couple hours, I explored different tables and learned from the many interactive activities in the exhibition hall. I first spoke with people representing the NC Zoo and learned about their exciting new launch of a mobile app expected to launch in Summer 2025. The app features virtual tours of the zoo in both English and Spanish, a career game focusing on the roles of a zookeeper, and an online version of Edzoocation—an interactive tool to learn about animals and their habitats. I then visited the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), a student-led club educating students and other young adults about mental health. At NAMI, I learned about the lemon breathing technique, where one pretends to make lemonade by imagining themselves holding a lemon in each hand and squeezing it when they breathe in and relaxing when they breathe out to help counter anxiety.
Grabbing the attention of many attendees was Spot, a four-legged robot from Novo Nordisk! Spot moved around and even used its claw-like extension to pick up toys accidentally dropped on the floor by the kids. Walking around a bit more, I soon found myself at the table for Kramden Institute where I came to know about their in-person and online camps providing training in different digital topics like learning how to fly drones. After Kramden, I came across Brooks Lab where I learned about the neural tube, an embryonic channel forming during the third or fourth week of pregnancy in humans and where the upper portion helps form the brain and skull and lower portion helps form the spine. At this time, I also met up with a friend and we both went to his table, where his lab, the Alonso-Stepanova Lab, was giving away plants to people who were able to guess the identity of at least three different seeds out of the many different seeds laid out on the table. It was amazing to see kids correctly guess many of the seeds and then also realize that I need to brush up on my seed knowledge.
After successfully guessing almost all of the seeds, albeit with a lot of help from my friend and people from his lab, I headed over to the BIT Program at table number 7 which also happens to be my favorite number. Coincidence? I think not! At the BIT table, I met Dr. Phillip Brown and the BIT lab manager, Robert Thomas. Since the event was coming to an end, I was unable to participate in the BIT activities, but did get an opportunity to see red and green fluorescence in Arabidopsis.
By the end of the fair, I had once again collected way too many stickers, and got a lemon balm palm and a pepper plant which I named Muriel and Courage, respectively. Although this was my second time attending Reach for the Stars! Be a Star!, I already look forward to making it my third time on April 18, 2026!