Abby Fox (Intro): Welcome to the Still Caring Podcast, presented by Stillwater Medical.

Joe Akin (Intro): Here, community is at the heart of healthcare.

Katon Lunsford (Intro): Through honest conversations and shared experiences

Abby Fox (Intro): we explore what it means to care for our health—

Joe Akin (Intro): and each other.

Katon Lunsford (Intro): Because better health takes a village and you're part of ours.

Joe Akin (Host): I'm Joe Akin. I work at Stillwater Medical Foundation. And I'm your host for this episode. Today, I'm joined by none other than Sara Brown, the Executive Director of StillWonder here in Stillwater. Just to jump off track for just a second. She is also a CPCM, a CFCM, a fellow working as the Senior Transformation Manager at Airbus US Space and Defense. Just contemplate that for a minute.

Sara Brown: That's a mouthful. I know. Who knows what I do? I But hey, it's a lot of words.

Host: Yes, it is. Now, StillWonder is a local nonprofit focused on hands-on STEAM learning experiences for kids through play and exploration. STEAM used to be just STEM. I think that's interesting. We've added art to it, which I love. But it's science, technology, engineering, art, and math. And Stillwater Medical couldn't be more proud than to support the work that Sara's doing in our community. And I'm excited for this conversation, because what Sara and her team are building may have a direct impact on the future of healthcare and innovation in our region. So, thank you, Sara, for being here and welcome to Still Caring.

Sara Brown: Excited to be here. Thanks for the invite.

Host: Well, hey, before we start talking about StillWonder itself, I'd love to start with your story. So, what inspired you to create StillWonder?

Sara Brown: I have a very active six-year-old. It started with just—it really was I have this little human that I'm supposed to be taking care of and giving him the best life that I possibly can. And looking around, I was driving to Tulsa, I was driving to Oklahoma City, Arkansas to give him these great experiences. And it just felt off that we didn't have that for our children, for our community.

And so, one night I was just like, "Hey, what am I going to do with all the spare time?" It was after COVID, and I'd quit all my boards. And I'm like, "What am I going to do?" My husband was like, "What are going to do?" I'm like, "I'm going to start a children's museum." Do I have experience? Not so much. But we're learning as we go, and it's been a wild ride.

Host: So truly, that was the moment. You were just sitting there and decided, "Hey, I've got all this energy. I've got a young one that needs to learn. And I want to help other's learn too."

Sara Brown: Absolutely. And it was heartbreaking. The Wonder Auditorium was so beloved. Not having it around had nothing to do with how much it was loved. It was just something that we couldn't let our community lose. And so, to be able to bring that back kind of 2.0 and bring those concepts and excitement to our community, it had to happen.

Host: Now, one of the things that I've heard you say is that curiosity and play come first. Why is that so important for children?

Sara Brown: It is. The curiosity part, that's what sparks that magic. That's what really helps things stick in their brains. I mean, you can teach kids all you want and sit them in classrooms and it's not that that's a bad way of learning. But when you can bring that learn through play concept, it just sticks. It's magic. It really is. And so, being able to inspire that and create the opportunity for it. And so, necessarily, we're not sitting down and teaching the kids, no. We're just creating the opportunity for this curiosity and learning to happen organically. It just sticks.

Host: So for people who may not have heard of StillWonder yet, how would you best describe it?

Sara Brown: I like to think of us more of as a community program. So first and foremost, we're here for the community. We are a space that we want to be inclusive, immersive, innovative, where everybody can find the fun in learning. It's everything from we do popups, we do grab-and-go kit, anything we can do to kind of create that environment for the caregivers, for the kids, for everybody to get that experience of whatever it is that they're engaging in. And it's really important to us that we provide that opportunity of that learn through play.

And I think the STEAM piece of it when jumbled back and forth, do we do the STEM? Do we do the STEAM? How does that even come in there? And so with that science, technology, engineering, that art piece along with the math for us, is so important. I think we've talked so much about creativity, I know we'll talk probably a lot more, but I think it's just that catalyst, that kind of like starts firing the neurons of the brain so that they can expand into more of those technical roles. And so, it was a very conscious effort for us to choose the STEAM side of it.

Host: A in STEAM stands for arts, and that's the new add-on. But in modern healthcare, increasingly, it depends on the design thinking, the human-centered care, medical visualization, patient experience design. They're all art-driven thinking skills. So, how does creativity and artistic thinking play into scientific discovery and innovation?

Sara Brown: So when I think about art, I think about like that, that you're creating a skillset of observation, and then creating something out of it, or it's like you're in it. And then, when you move to the technical side, you're applying it, you're taking that creativity piece and you're putting into that more technical side. I feel like if we don't have the art and the creativity and that piece that's guiding us to think differently, to challenge the way that we do things, that when we go into these technical skill sets, it's that catalyst, it's that spark that's actually having those curiosities to make us do better things in healthcare, make us do better things in different technological venues that you might go into your careers.

Host: As we roll through the years, one of the things that we're finding in healthcare is that if we don't innovate, if we don't embrace technology, we're going to have issues. So, that's another part of this whole thing that we're excited about, because you get them engaged when they're that young. Eventually, they turn into the people that are going to be taking care of me in a few years. So, more power to you. And I hope you get those grants.

Sara Brown: And we hope for it. It's one of those things that when we're building this, that's our goal. Like, it's not necessarily, for kids, to just create a career path for children. We're not trying to do that. We're trying to give them that spark to be able to be whatever they want to be and to have a little fun while doing it.

And so, anything we can do to help plant those seeds and build those magical moments, that's what we're striving to do. And if it happens to help us go into career paths that Oklahoma might need in the future, then I am here for it.

Host: With the success that you've had in your career in the different areas, all STEAM related, I've often wondered and never asked this of you, were you a child of STEM? I mean, were you intentionally exposed to it or did you just gravitate towards it?

Sara Brown: I was pretty lucky, man. I did have some of the opportunities. My mother was really great on making sure that I went to—I'll never forget it, and it was learned through play before. It was cool, man. It was at a science museum in Houston and they did these summer camps. And I remember playing with dinosaur poop and being like, "Oh yeah, I've made it. I've played with dinosaur poop. But it really planted that seed. And both of my grandmothers were really big into arts. So whether it was sewing or working with different pottery and baskets and just any type of really medium that you could think of in the art world, I was exposed to pretty heavily along with the business side from a lot of my other family sources. So, I got lucky. I got to see both sides.

What I think that we're taking that next level with is really getting the opportunity to do that yourself. So, I was still learning about it. It wasn't that I was being an excavator, and I was digging out the poop. And that's where I think we take it to where like, "I could have dug out the poop." I know I keep saying poop, but the kids will love it.

Host: Yeah, they will.

Sara Brown: But it's taking it out of that concept and being able to, "Well, I'm looking at the poop, or am I digging up the poop?" That's the piece that I don't think I got.

Host: You've changed—

Sara Brown: We're trying to.

Host: You've changed the way I think about STEAM, a STEAM-ey pile.

Sara Brown: I know. I was Like, "Oh, he going to go there. He is definitely."

Host: Has there been a moment when you're watching the kids play, when you see one of them do something and you say that is exactly why we started StillWonder?

Sara Brown: It's more of just something that was said. There was a family that was probably like halfway through our popups last year. And we were doing—I don't think it was the Mud kitchen, but it was one of our more fun events. It was probably robots. And this kid, literally, as they're walking out the door to leave goes, "Best day ever!" And I'm sitting here like, "Yeah, it is." And his dad walks by and he's like, "He went to Disney last week. Thanks a lot." And I'm like, "Yeah." But these kids are having so much fun and like to hear that feedback. I've had kids write me notes, draw me pictures, like, the staff is just amazing and they're just getting the support that they deserve, like seeing these kids so excited.

So, I think that's probably one of the most memorable. And then, it's fun to see the parents getting into this, man. We did a marshmallow engineering, like builds, like just popup space. Man, those parents were building some of the coolest stuff I've ever seen and they're having fun. We had one where we were doing art, bringing art to code. So, using different colors to kind of articulate how code might work and you're drawing a picture out of it. And this dad made like one of the coolest princess like art pieces for his daughter. And it was just gorgeous. But they're in there just drawing, they're building. We want it for everybody. We want to create that excitement for not just the kids. This is a whole community experience. We even did a popup at Legacy Village to help with memory care and things like that. So, even though our focus is and always will be kids, it's learn through plays for everyone.

Host: And one of the things when you were talking about the dad and the son and they'd just gotten back from Disney World or Disneyland, whichever, immediately when you said that, I thought, how interesting is this because the STEM engagement that you're having with the son could ultimately put him in a position to be an imagineer. He needs those skills in order to build the things that he experienced when he was there. So, oh, that's a feel good.

Sara Brown: Yeah, it was pretty wicked. I loved it.

Host: So one of the reasons this conversation is so interesting to us at Stillwater Medical is the connection between curiosity, STEAM learning, And the future of healthcare. When kids are experimenting and exploring science at a young age, what doors do you think that that might open later in their life?

Sara Brown: It's again, just by opening their minds to what they could potentially be by just giving them the opportunity to see what's out there, just to have that aperture opened a little bit on what they're capable of doing. It's pretty exciting. And I think that's what's so important. There were a lot of things I didn't know that I could even be when I grew up, and to be able to show them through these learn through play activities. We did a vet med one, which was so cool. We had like puzzles where we're taking apart a turtle and putting it back together.

But this one kid was just fascinated with how it worked and just asking the questions, "Well, how does that fit? Where does that go?" And so, I look at it when we're building the robots, could they be building one of the next, like healthcare transformational robots that go in and help us with surgeries? I don't know, or clean. Like, "Oh, we go through a lot of hand sanitizer, but like maybe they're going to invent something really cool that helps me not get sick every other week. I'm here for that. But they don't even know what they don't know. And by giving them those experiences, I think they could be just about anything.

Host: I couldn't agree more. But, hey, when you think about the future of our community, what role do organizations like StillWonder play in preparing that next generation? And yeah, just go at that one.

Sara Brown: I feel like we're planting seeds—like, we really are. We're out there just doing whatever we can to give those little seeds a little water, maybe some soil. Just the little things they need to help grow their minds into that opportunity. And it's a big deal for us, especially for our community and want to have them do it here.

I'm big on I'm somebody who went off in my career and lived my best life in a lot of different places. But once I came back to Oklahoma, I'm like, no, I feel this very strong need to build these skillsets up and keep them in Oklahoma. And so, I look at this and I want to plant these seeds for our community for StillWater, for Oklahoma, and be able to see if they can grow some pretty great things for us in the future.

Host: We talked about the popups and you guys going around the community, going out to that. Why is it important to bring the experiences into the community instead of expecting the families to come to you?

Sara Brown: It really comes to accessibility. Like, when we're playing and they're having all this fun, not every family has the opportunity on a Saturday to go to the Botanic Gardens at OSU. Not everybody has the opportunity to go out to an event in Tulsa or any of the other great museums that we have. We want to be able to bring it to where they are. That was one of the biggest things with the trailer that we just did. And thank you, SMC, for your support of that. So, we want to be out where the need is. And by bringing that accessibility out into the forefront, going to the schools, going to the parks, going to the community spaces, by having that available to us, we feel like it just strongly supports what we're trying to do of being like accessible for all.

Host: I know your long-term goal is to have a permanent location for this. A couple of questions. What do you think that would mean to Stillwater? And I hope this is a rhetorical question, that's not going to mean the end to the traveling show, right?

Sara Brown: I don't think so. No, it's been just too successful for us not to. And not all the events that we do are huge. Like we like some of the more intimate popups that we can do because it really is kind of quality over quantity. We get more time to kind of explore and to play ourselves and to be able to have conversations with caregivers and parents on what's going on, what was their favorite. So, we kind of try to mix it up so that we're not just a giant event somewhere. We really try to do the smaller things here and there, as well as the medium to larger size. But we see the future of a permanent museum space. I want a dedicated place for this learning to take place.

And right now, we are stretched. Like, with all the places that we're going, we don't have that home base to call our own. It really would elevate the level of care and fun that we're able to do when you have that home base. And I think that it's where I see everything from the families playing to the programming that we could be able to do and looking at even future camps without a permanent brick and mortar, it's pretty hard to keep this sustainable. And so, that's why that is in our short-term goals is to lock in something that we can call our own. 

Host: What is it you think—and I mean my mind goes all over the place when I think about this, but what it is something kids today understand about technology that amazes you? Other than everything. I mean, the older I get the less I want to engage, but I know I have to.

Sara Brown: I know, I'm all like, "Oh man, those pivot tables, they kill me. I should be better at them, but I'm not." But no, I think, it's how quickly they understand it, man; how quickly they jump in and they just inherently understand how it functions and works. And then, not only do they step it and they're like, "Oh no, I got this step aside. But I'm going to find new ways to use it and work with it." Taking it to a whole nother innovation level. Like, I'm just impressed every day when I see them breaking stuff down, easily functioning with it. I even see it with our fellows and interns, man, the way that they're coming in and helping us with CRM databases, which I'd never even heard of before this nonprofit, coming in and helping us with QuickBooks and just guiding us. I know, those are kind of just more administrative type of stuff, but just seeing how their brains and technology work. It's just so cool, man.

Host: We close every episode of what we call a challenge to care. What is one thing that you think parents, grandparents, community members could do this week to spark curiosity and learning in kids in the community?

Sara Brown: Let the kids learn or be curious before you give them an answer. So like, how many times do you hear why from your kids? Like, I think I hear it like 80,000 times. The only thing I hear more is "Mom, mom, mom." But it's fine. But it's not a trigger, it's fine. But they will say, "Well, why?" Well, let's turn it back on them. "Why do you think? Why do you think it works like that? Let's break that down," and let them kind of build their curiosity on how it does work, and then we can give them the answer. But let's challenge them to start thinking of the whys. Let's have their brain, their little curiosity minds ask, like, "Why do you think that? What do you think?" It's a pretty easy, simple way to flip the script.

Host: It is, but man, that's powerful. But hey, Sara, thank you for joining us and for the work and your team are doing to inspire the curiosity of the next generation. It's organizations like StillWonder that remind us that the future—our future and the future of healthcare—is innovation, community leadership, and it all often begins with just kind of what you just said.

It's the very simple things from a child just saying why, because that's where everything starts. But I love that you went there, because you don't have to just give them the answer. In fact, this is strong, but it's kind of crippling by just giving them the answer.

And to our listeners, thank you for joining us for the Still Caring Podcast. And remember, This is what we keep talking about, better health takes a village, and we are super glad that you're part of ours. Sara, thank you so much.

Sara Brown: Thank you, guys.