Dr. Shannon Schmoll is the director of the Abrams Planetarium at Michigan State University. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Washington. She holds a PhD in Education and Astronomy and Astrophysics and Museum Studies certificate from University of Michigan. Her dissertation was specifically on integration of planetarium field trips into elementary level curriculum for more effective field trips. She now is the director of Abrams Planetarium where she has overseen expansion of programming, helped grow the audience to 30,000 visitors per year, and is leading the development of an Institute for Library and Museum Services funded exhibit featuring Michigan Meteorites. She is also the research lead on a National Science Foundation funded project called Big Astronomy. This project brings together several institutions to create a new planetariums how, online resources, social media events, and hands on activities to introduce people to astronomy in Chile. Dr. Schmoll and her team are studying how these additional resources help continue engagement beyond the planetarium. This project came out of the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Program (ACEAP) of which Dr. Schmoll was part of the original cohort. This program takes educators to Chile to visit the major observatories so they can come back and do outreach related to them. She serves on the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion committee and is the chair of the Education Committee of the International Planetarium Society. She lives in Okemos, Michigan with her husband, two young daughters and three cats. She is an avid baker, loves to crochet and cook, and is trying her hand at gardening. Her favorite thing to bake these days is bread.
"By the end of high school, I was pretty sure I wanted to be an astronomer. I was going to go to college, major in astronomy, go to grad school and then become an astronomy professor. It seems so clear to me that this was my plan. While in undergrad, though, I was trained on the the planetarium there and started giving shows to groups that came through. I started teaching summer programs for kids and then lab sections for introductory courses. I incorporated the planetarium into my teaching. I did outreach programs at schools as well. I didn't realize it yet, but I caught the planetarium bug. I didn't think my plans had changed yet. I went to grad school, with the same plan as when I started college. I was accepted to two grad schools. After I visited both, my choice was very clear where I wanted to go. There were a ton of factors in favor of where I chose to go. Most importantly, at the time at least, were the research opportunities and faculty I wanted to work with. But my chosen school was also close to a part of my family I didn't get to see often, one of my good friends was already there, AND they the better planetarium. Not only did they have the better planetarium, they had TWO on campus. I was so excited to get to teach in that planetarium. As grad students we had to teach and I always made sure to incorporate the planetarium again. One day I had to take a make up exam for a math class because I was sick. While waiting in the hallway I noticed a flyer for the museum studies program at UM. I was intrigued. I asked my advisors if I could and they said no, you must focus on your research and prelims, understandably. After passing my prelims, my advisors sat me down and we had a conversation about how it seemed I was happier when teaching and thinking about working in museums and planetariums. They suggested and I happily accepts the idea that I should do a student initiated degree program that UM offered, where you combine work from two graduate programs to do one joint PhD. So I switched gears, started taking education classes, working on education research and did that museum studies program. I also started teaching a class that was entirely in the planetarium and loved it. I also spoke to the manager of the second planetarium on campus in our natural history museum and ended up volunteering there as well as using that space for my dissertation work. I focused my work on applying what we knew about museum learning to planetariums and studying how to embed planetarium field trips into formal curriculum for best field trip practices. So, I was able to combine my interests in astronomy, education, and museums to create a background uniquely suited for work in planetariums. However, those skills were handy beyond planetariums as well. There was no guarantee I would get a planetarium job and my first job out of grad school had nothing to do with astronomy. I instead created educational resources for a traveling exhibit being developed at the Field Museum. It was a year long appointment that I was able to get because I combined so many things in my career that gave me a diverse skill set. As soon as my year the Field Museum was up, I had my job at the Abrams Planetarium line up and I felt at home in my new dome."
What inspires you?
The night sky. It's a little a little cheesy, especially for someone in my field. But it really is an amazing thing to look at, especially in really dark skies. Those are rare today. But what's amazing about it is that you can look up and see the same stars that others all over the world have seen for generations. But you can look at each other's ways of using the stars to tell stories, convey information, navigate, tell time, etc and learn so much about them. So they bring us together and help us learn from one another. Also, even with a simulated sky in a planetarium, the moment you turn down the lights the gasps of joy never get old That inspires me to keep going and keep finding ways of making astronomy important and interesting in everyone's lives.
What did you want to be when you were younger?
I started out as wanting to be a teacher. Then a paleontologist, then a doctor, and then a cancer researcher, and then an astronomer and here I am back at a teacher of sorts.
Which subjects did you enjoy at school?
I have always enjoyed science, even when I was younger. I also really liked writing stories and illustrating them. That is essentially what I do now. I use art and stories to help communicate science and wonder to people. When you are growing up, you don't see how all these things will connect. But if you are lucky they end up coming together into something amazing.
What would you like to tell your younger self?
I don't know if I would want to tell myself anything. I am who I am because of the road and path I took...bumps and all. So if I said anything it would be it might feel like you are on the wrong path and it's okay to switch gears, but even switching is part of your path of figuring out who you are and what you want to do.
Why did you choose STEM?
I always had an interest, but I didn't really fall into it until I had an open 4th period in my sophomore year of high school. I could only fit physics in so I took it. And all of sudden things clicked. It made sense and I liked solving the problems and breaking apart everything and figuring out how to get the solution out. I also just liked understanding how things work, why they are the way they are. Understanding the basics opens up a whole new world on how to fit all of those elements together to come up with solutions to other problems.
How important is it for you to stand out?
It's important to me that I don't stand out too much. To some extent I have to in my job. I am the head of a facility that does outreach with the community. So I am the "face" of the planetarium. But at the same time, I think it's important for someone in my role to lift others around them and let them shine. I should help craft the programming that helps bring others stories to the forefront and let the work we are doing shine. So, if I am standing out, then I am blocking the view of the wonderful things and voices that should be heard instead of mine.
What difficulties did you face in the industry, as a woman?
There is a constant nagging voice from around that doubts your ability to do your jobs. I encounter it most when teaching. I almost always have a student who feels the need to correct me or show me up. It is also always a male student. It makes me question myself, even if it's something I have been teaching for a long time. There was one time when I had a particularly difficult student who was constantly laughing and trying to correct me in my class. On the last day I was talking about black holes, which happened to my area of scientific research at the time. I mentioned the black hole in the center of our galaxy and its mass. He corrected me and I had a female student just yell to the class "She's Right! I just watched the video she sent us and it's in there" or something like that. I think about that incident a lot and how it's affected me. One I am so glad for that female student and it helped me gain a little confidence back. But I also every time I hear someone laughing or talking under their breathe when I teach, I start to doubt myself. That confidence gets eroded away with every person who questions your ability to do your job and it happens far more frequently for women. I know I am not the only one with a story like that. There are also studies about why we lose women in STEM, especially at higher levels like professorships. The work/family balance is really hard to attain in academia. There are people who do it, but it's hard. As a result we see a fall off women from academia because tenure/publishing pressures for that tenure put women who want a family at odds with their work. Most of my wonderful female role models who were in academia also didn't have kids. I wanted kids and didn't see a sane path for me.
What advice would you give to the next generation of female scientists?
Take care of yourself. There's still a lot we are fighting against to make the world better. You also have a voice and that voice is valuable in whatever you do. But you cannot do great things if you burn yourself out in the process. So, take care of yourself.
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