School portraits / Planetarium director, 2023
Bronx Science, your teenager is running the universe
Planetarium director is a splendid school role. It may be harder to impress the people at home.
In 2023, Bronx Science senior Archer Yang held a title that could improve any family group chat: planetarium director. In the Astronomy Club, it meant monthly planetarium trips and tours at events like open houses.
A classroom is a fine thing to show visitors. Archer could offer the sky.
If my child held that title, dinner would not stand a chance. Someone would ask about vegetables, and within two sentences we would be among the stars.
An old 2011 open-house invitation described a class-sized dome on the school roof and gave directions with admirable practicality: third floor, stairway D, science wing, follow the signs.
That is the pleasure of a school building. You can contemplate distances that make the human mind wobble and still need to explain which staircase.
Archer's interest began earlier, with the inflatable planetarium his grade school let each class visit once a year. He remembered it as what he looked forward to most. By senior year, the waiting child was bringing others in.
Camila Kulahlioglu, a club co-president writing in the school paper in January 2023, admitted she might be a little biased. Still, her picture was welcoming: ninth through twelfth graders, with older members teaming up with younger ones and sometimes leading presentations.
Impressive equipment is nice, but the welcome is what makes it a club. It helps when the older students make room for the newer ones.
It is tempting, on a school tour, to wonder what students will do someday. In 2023, Archer already had people waiting for him to show them the stars.