(inspirational music) - I recently spoke with Tamour Kousha, who is the executive vice president and CFO at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey,
about an audacious new program that they hope will impact lives well beyond their community. Now, our story starts rather modestly with 12 and a half acres of
empty land in Jersey City. Early in his first term,
mayor Steve Fulop was trying to figure out
what to do with this land. His obvious solution would be to sell it to a high-end devel
oper
and rake in the revenue for the property taxes. But he had another option and as Tamour told me, this other option kind of captured his imagination. 'Cause you see, this 12 and a half acres is adjacent to the Liberty Science Center and the mayor loves the Science Center. So he went to the CEO, Paul Hoffman, and he challenged him and
his team to dream up a use for this land that could
impact not just Jersey City, but the state, maybe the
country, possibly the world. Hoffman and Tamour and th
e
team took up the challenge by focusing on their mission. With a mission to inspire
the next generation of scientists and
engineers, they envisioned a public Liberty Science
Center high school. With a mission to excite
people about the power and promise of science and technology, they envisioned an eight
story incubation hub for dozens of tech startups. They imagined Scholars Village
for up to 500 residences and tying it all together,
they imagined a public commons for street fairs and makers
f
airs and concerts and more. Home to the largest planetarium
in the United States, Liberty Science Center shot for the moon and the mayor and city council
enthusiastically approved it. On October 22nd, 2021, mayor Steve Fulop and CEO Paul Hoffman broke
ground on SciTech Scity, a city of tomorrow innovation campus. On the same day they broke ground, they stated their intention to center health and wellbeing at SciTech Scity when they announced their
first innovation partner would be Israel's Sheba
Medical Center, one of the world's
leading hospital systems. Sheba Innovators will
take up an entire floor at the tech incubator. They will be working on something called the Hospital of Tomorrow, developing digital
technology focused on health, wellbeing, health equity,
dealing with chronic pain. Sheba Innovators and their families will live at Scholars Village. Sheba will provide internships to the students at Liberty
Science Center High School. And I have no doubt that Sheba Innovations will
capture the imaginations
of visitors of all ages through programs and exhibits
at Liberty Science Center. So just, so just stop and
think about this for a minute. Cutting edge digital
technology with a promise to improve the health
and wellbeing of millions will be developed at SciTech Scity, the brainchild and wholly owned subsidiary of a cultural organization,
Liberty Science Center. I mean, in a time when
arts and culture is seen as this nice to have. You know, like in the live, work, learn,
play, pyramid of life, arts and culture is so
often lumped in with play. And play is last and play is least, and play is first to be cut. But not at Liberty Science Center. They don't think of themselves
as the tip of the pyramid. They imagine themselves in the center. They imagine themselves in the
center of their solar system. What would happen if we imagined arts and culture in the center? (inspirational music)
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