A matchbox floating on water, causing some rippling.

On a walk by a river not long ago, I saw a box of matches valiantly floating along in the water. It made me a little melancholy to think of all the potential energy in that box that would never be used, all those matches that would never light a fire because of the watery obstacle to connection and spark. 

    I sometimes think of complicated research as a soggy box of matches — full of potential energy but unable to light a fire in those of us who might be impacted by or interested in the work, because we don’t understand it. Our mission at the Center for Communicating Science (CCS) is to give researchers, scholars, scientists, and inventors the concepts, skills, and practice they need to make connections and to light a fire that will allow them to live out our university’s motto of service to the Commonwealth of Virginia and to the world. 

    We submitted the charter for the CCS in the fall of 2016 and held an opening celebration in the spring of 2017. But we’ve been doing the work of the center since 2012, when I developed and taught the first section of the graduate course Communicating Science and began responding to requests for workshops. Because that’s a nice round ten years ago, I want to take this opportunity to provide an overview of our work and thank some key contributors to the growth of the center.

    Numbers

    In our workshops and classes we tell people, “Don’t lead with the data! Establish a human connection first!”  I’m going to bend that rule here — because as I think through the numbers in our CCS Fiscal Year 2022 annual report I am astounded and want to shout, “Look how far we’ve come!”  

    Our friend and Faculty Fellow of the Center, Liz Allen, who is a wiz at analyzing and representing data, has called the figure below “the blue wave.” As I look at this chart I marvel at the sparks, energy, and connections that have created that wave, and how we have used the fire of thousands of partners to learn to surf on it!

A blue and orange graphical representation of the Center for Communicating Science Impact.
A graphical representation of the Center for Communicating Science running totals over time of events and people impacted.

    These two figures show just the surface of the stories of more than ten years teaching Communicating Science in the Graduate School, more than five years as a center, nine colleges served, expanding social media engagement and awareness of our work, hundreds of presentations and events, 1,300 students who completed our classes, 25 CCS Faculty Fellows and 19,000 people impacted by our workshops, presentations, and outreach. All that comes from one drop of human energy, which turns into a trickle, which turns into a torrent of people saying “Yes, and . . .” to the importance of developing our abilities to communicate complex ideas in ways that build connection. 

    Stories

    The first step in any communication or collaboration process is to listen. We know the whole story is about so much more than numbers. We teach folks to listen to others’ stories — and to share their own in personal, direct, and responsive ways.  We know that most of the participants in the center’s classes and workshops have gone on to think more deeply about their responsibilities and privileges in communicating about their work. Most of them also experience the gifts that come in connecting deeply with others.  Many have begun to see others as collaborators rather than recipients of knowledge. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that whole careers and directions of research have been shifted for the better because of individuals’ experiences with the CCS. 

    Some people have had their personal lives impacted (hopefully in positive ways!). I recall an arborist in San Diego who came up to me after a large workshop and said that he thought one exercise we’d done had saved his marriage. The exercise had demonstrated to him that his wife was right, that he wasn’t actually listening to her much of the time. 

    We are humbled to have been part of so many stories. And as part of this year’s celebration of our center we are collecting more: Stories of how our connection might have impacted your life. If you have a story, large or small, of an interaction with the Center for Communicating Science, we’d very much appreciate hearing it or reading it. You can send your stories to me at praun@vt.edu (please use the subject line “CCS story” when you email me your story).

    Gratitude

    While we are delighted that the work of the center has helped researchers and our communities to embrace the beautiful complexities of human connection, mostly we are grateful. Grateful to every one of the 19,000 people we have interacted with — you are what powers “the blue wave”! You are living the “art of connecting across difference,” the center’s subtitle, in the world.  

    I genuinely wish we could write an entire story about the ways that we have been lifted up by people like deans Dr. Karen Depauw and Dr. Aimée Surprenant and all of the other folks at the Graduate School, Dr. Karen Roberto and the folks at the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment, Dr. X.J. Meng, Dr. Bill Hopkins, Dr. Kiyah Duffy, and all the folks at the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, our Advisory Board and Steering Committee members, and all of the graduate students who have explored with us what it means to make human connections in authentic conversations about science and research in initiatives like the StoryMaps project, the Communicating Science Club, the Nutshell Games, ComSciCon, and much more. We intend to profile the contributions of some of these folks in upcoming issues of our newsletter. 

    The heart and soul of the Center for Communicating Science is its associate director, Dr. Carrie Kroehler. She brings her tremendous curiosity, courage, insight, thoroughness, and deep knowledge of what it requires to be fully present and fully human to bear on every project, small or large. The sparks of good ideas come from a variety of sources, but Carrie is usually the one that does the hard work of making sure the fire can sustain itself. She has regularly taught the graduate Communicating Science class and has been the guiding force behind some of our most important work over the years, including our student writing projects, Girls Launch!, and our Black Excellence in STEM oral history project

    Dear readers, thank you for your part in the Center for Communicating Science.  We would be matches in the middle of the river without you.

    Patty Raun, director, Center for Communicating Science