Fleet Science Center Celebrates 50 Years with Annual Gala Saturday

by Debbie L. Sklar

Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. Photo by Mario Chavez / Flickr

Hooray for science!

Since 1973, the Fleet Science Center has been working to connect everyone in San Diego County to the power of science.

On Saturday, April 15, at 5:30 p.m. the Fleet will celebrate these five decades of STEM inspiration with its 50^th Anniversary Gala at the science center located at 1875 El Prado, San Diego.

One of those who connected is Katya Echazarreta, who in June 2022 became the first Mexican-born woman to fly to space. The citizen astronaut, electrical engineer, and science communicator will be the Fleet’s guest of honor at the gala.

She credits the Fleet with piquing her interest in her career, “[The Fleet] is what started this journey toward space for me.”

She said that as an elementary school student in the South Bay, Echazarreta visited the Fleet on a school field trip and participated in a simulated Challenger space mission.

“That was one of the first times I had felt like I belonged. I felt like I knew what I was doing.” She explains that she was excited to educate her classmates and the Fleet facilitators about Mars. “I was telling everybody, ‘You guys are going to see that we’re going to find that there was water on Mars,’” she said.

At that time, this fact had not been proven.

That field trip was only the beginning of her involvement with the Fleet. While a City College student in 2015–16, she volunteered and paid it forward to San Diego County children who were as excited about STEM as she had been. She was also the Fleet’s volunteer of the year.

In the last 50 years, the Fleet has been a place of inspiration and a community of support to more than 26 million people.

“As a countywide organization, the Fleet connects more than 120,000 youth to the power of science each year,” notes Fleet President and CEO Steven Snyder, Ph.D. “Katya inspires them, and we are proud to have her as our honorary guest for the 50^th Anniversary Gala.”

Funds raised at the gala will go to support the Fleet’s many education and community efforts.

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