What is the In Search of Genius Foundation?
We are a 501c3, not-for-profit initiative launched in 2007 to honor the life and legacy of unrecognized minority scientists whose discoveries had a significant impact on all our lives. Dr. Percy Julian, an African American Scientist, discovered a way to turn soybeans into synthetic steroids on an industrial scale. His innovative approach to chemistry helped to make drugs like cortisone available to millions. Dr. Julian overcame countless obstacles to become a world-class scientist, a self-made millionaire, and a civil-rights pioneer. His story, like the story of many minority scientists who have invented or helped invent life-changing technologies, remains largely unknown.
What is the In Search of Genius Foundation’s mission?
The foundation’s mission is to provide children living in underserved areas with compelling opportunities to discover new life skills and to explore the worlds of science.
What are the Foundation’s identified program directions?
- Create children’s science and life-skill learning centers in underserved Chicago communities
- Provide overnight science-summer camp experiences
- Establish scholarship seats at major universities
- Provide tutoring, mentoring and jobs
- Equip science classrooms
What is the Foundation’s first initiative and why?
The In Search of Genius Foundation has taken a year to carefully identify and examine the above program options, all of which address the Foundation’s mission. It has been determined that from among the planned program directions above, creating state-of-the-art, strategically located Children’s Science and Life Skill Learning Centers will be our first initiative, with each of the other directions following. Research strongly supports the need for stimulating the minds of young children at key times during critical developmental stages. Our Centers will do exactly that for children between 2 and 12 years old. Centers will offer a combination of hands-on exhibits, interactive displays, a fully-equipped science laboratory, a real kitchen where cooking and food science meet, a photography and film center, a neighborhood staff of well-trained guides and more. Students will interact with and explore the worlds of science around them while developing critical life skills such as critical thinking and literacy. Two such centers, initially, one in each of two underserved Chicago communities, will be created by the Foundation. One will be located in a primarily African American neighborhood, the other in a predominately Hispanic neighborhood, and each will serve its immediate and surrounding areas. Importantly, each will be conveniently located and easily accessible to the populations they will serve.
How will children attending the In Search of Genius Children’s Science and Life Skill Learning Centers result in OUTCOMES for the children, their families and the communities they serve?
- Young and fertile minds will be stimulated at a time when stimulation is critical to brain development; AN ATTENDING CHILD’S DESIRE AND CURIOSITY TO LEARN ABOUT SCIENCE WILL BE SPARKED
- Children in school who attend the centers regularly will BETTER their school PERFORMANCE as a formula for good citizenship, and class effort at school earns center entry and participation in an attendance reward system
- PARENTS will be welcomed into learning about science and about how to PLAY A MORE MEANINGFUL ROLE in their child’s education; audio visual presentations at the centers will welcome parents to the learning team
- Centers will reflect their community’s ethnicity and BRING AN ADDITIONAL SOURCE OF PRIDE AND OWNERSHIP TO THE COMMUNITY
- Each center will build strong communication links with surrounding schools and provide an important during- and after-school resource; the program will demonstrate that REGULAR center PARTICIPATION by school children WILL RESULT IN LESS SCHOOL ABSENCES AND LESS NEGATIVE CLASSROOM BEHAVIORS
Who are the people that comprise the In Search of Genius Team?
Joining In Search of Genius Founding Director Gerry Walanka are a group of skilled professionals and community leaders including US Congressman Danny Davis who sits on the US House of Representatives Education Committee. Three key and hands-on individuals serving on the foundation’s board and as part of its executive committee are Architect George Halik, a principal in the Booth Hansen architectural firm, designers of the Kohl’s Childrens Museum in Glenview, IL; Dr. John Loehr, Science Manager with the Chicago Public Schools; and nationally acclaimed science educator Shawn Carlson, the only person to ever receive a McArthur Foundation Genius Fellowship for science education. Shawn serves currently as Executive Director of the SciTech Hands-on Museum in Aurora, IL.
While all board members have made significant and unique contributions to our growth, Rich Daniels, Chairman of the Board of Mercy Home For Boys and Girls, brings the In Search of Genius Team a level of commitment and wealth of experience that has helped gather resources and otherwise guide us. The Foundation is also privileged to receive pro bono legal and accounting services and guidance from the law firm of Jenner & Block and the accounting firm Crowe Horwath.
Does the In Search of Genius Foundation work in collaboration with other community organizations?
The foundation has formed an essential partnership with the Chicago Public Schools. The beginning of that partnership was introduced at the Chicago Theatre when the Foundation was publicly introduced in 2007. Michael Lach, Officer for High School Teaching & Learning, and other key individuals from the Chicago Public Schools spoke that evening, and their comments can be viewed at the “video clips” part of our web site. The Foundation has also met with the executive directors of Chicago’s three major Children’s Museums who have agreed to work with us collaboratively as we continue to move forward in creating our Children’s Science and Life Skill Learning Centers.
What has the In Search of Genius Foundation accomplished to date, and what are its next steps?
The foundation has built a racially- and gender-diverse board of directors of well-regarded and influential professionals and community leaders. This has been accomplished over the past 17 months following the Foundation’s launch as its exciting first initiative has been identified and continually refined. Members of the Foundation’s executive committee have joined its founder-director in meeting over these past months with the heads of children’s museums, numerous community organizations, educators, aldermen and religious community leaders to assure a wide spectrum of buy-in and participation. Some 20 Fortune 100 companies with strong child and family product/service orientations have been identified as prospective project support partners. Initial informal contact has been made by the founder-director with senior level executives at several of these companies. A Caldwell Banker Team has volunteered their lead in assisting the foundation to identify and secure two appropriate Center sites.
To date, the foundation has operated in a virtual mode and is ready to establish a base of operation and a small staff consisting of an administrative assistant and professional fundraiser to assist the founder-director in accomplishing the following over the next 6 months:
- Identify and bring to our board 2 or 3 additional board members in highly influential positions to assist with fundraising and the recruitment of Fortune 100 companies as sponsors
- Raise $300,000 to carry the foundation through its approximate 24 month pre-site construction phase
- Work with a major PR Firm and our accounting and law firms to prepare Fortune 100 Company presentations
- Identify and secure options to ‘right sites’ for the foundation’s Children’s Science and Life Skill Learning Centers
- Procure necessary permits and development/execution of necessary contracts with Fortune 100 Sponsors and others
