As a paleontologist and 2023 graduate of Fort Hays State University, I am devastated to learn of the potential closure of the Sternberg Museum of Natural History.
During my time at FHSU, I received bachelor’s degrees in geosciences and biology, and two certificates in zoology and museum studies (all classes which took place at night in the museum).
I was also deeply involved in other aspects of the university, including in the Honors College and the music department. In 2021, I was honored to become FHSU’s first ever Barry Goldwater Scholar, a prestigious national scholarship awarded to a select few undergraduates with great potential to become research scientists.
In 2023, I was the third FHSU student to be awarded the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship, another prestigious national scholarship awarded to fund graduate student research. Both of these awards were widely publicized by FHSU (I can find at least 27 articles that use myself and my story), and they granted me amazing opportunities, none of which would have been possible without the Sternberg Museum.
The Sternberg Museum opened these opportunities to me, and it is vitally important that it remains open to present opportunities like these for future generations of students.
Growing up in Denver, Colorado, I would often visit the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, which has a cast of A Fish Within A Fish on display.
I loved this fossil so much that on our yearly trips to visit my extended family in Abilene, Texas, I would force my parents to drive a farther route, just to stop by the Sternberg Museum of Natural History. This would add an additional 3-4 hours to our already 12 plus hour long drive, but my mom would stop by this museum because she knew the value of the Sternberg and how much impact it had on myself and my older brother.
Additionally, because of this out-of-the-way stop, my family of four would always go to the museum, get dinner, spend the night in a hotel, and get breakfast in Hays, meaning we were supporting the local economy as well as fueling two children’s love for science, paleontology, and the natural world.
Because I grew up in Denver, there were very few water towers, as most of our water comes from snow runoff. As a child, every single time I would see the rare water tower, I would squeal in excitement because I thought my mom was taking me back to my favorite place: the Sternberg Museum.
When she would tell me that we were, in fact, six hours away from that museum, I would feel devastated and just could not wait to go back next winter.
The Sternberg Museum is one of the places where I fell in love with paleontology, and I dedicated the rest of my life to this amazing science.
However, because I grew up in Colorado, I was only looking at colleges within the state. As an individual from a low-income family, I did not think I could afford out-of-state tuition.
I had my sights set on Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado from the age of 14 when they gave a presentation at my high school. My dedication to that college was unwavering.
They had a great geosciences department located in a beautiful mountainous region and were offering me far more scholarship value than anywhere else. Yet, when I learned that my beloved Sternberg Museum was connected to a university, I chose Fort Hays State University.
From that moment on, my perspective shifted entirely. It was all I could think about. I could do my undergraduate research at THE Sternberg Museum that I grew up going to every winter.
Despite having to pay out-of-state tuition (contiguous tuition) and receiving less in scholarships, I chose Fort Hays State University and Hays, Kansas, BECAUSE of the Sternberg.
I never once regretted that decision. I love FHSU. I talk about my time there frequently, and I still proudly wear my TGOF. However, I have found myself betrayed and abandoned by the university I once loved so deeply by the threatened closure of the Sternberg.
As I am in my fourth year of my PhD at Vanderbilt University, I have always dreamed of one day returning to Fort Hays State University. Although I was raised in Denver, I always felt at home in Hays. I never felt attached to Colorado in the way many people do for their hometowns, but I have always felt an attachment to Hays, Kansas, and FHSU. I dreamed of being a professor in the Geosciences or Biology Department, spending my days teaching the classes I enjoyed and conducting research at the Sternberg, in the museum and collections that I loved.
Even if I didn’t get a job at FHSU, I dreamt of supporting students in a similar way that I was supported by donating to fund female paleontologists studying at the university I loved. Now these dreams are gone.
Without the museum, there is no place for me in Hays, there is no reason to donate as there will be no paleontology to be studied, and the heart of the university and the heart of Hays, Kansas, will be gone. I know that many of my fellow graduates feel the same, especially my fellow members of the Honors College, which was always dominated by paleontology and geology students.
Without the Sternberg Museum, I fear that Hays and FHSU will lose major tourist, scientific and public appeal, while also losing the ability to recruit Kansas and America's best and brightest.
The education I received at FHSU was high quality, but coming from a small, relatively unknown university attempting to get into an extremely competitive and well-known university like Vanderbilt was no easy task.
Despite my good grades and success in my undergraduate studies, I felt that I likely did not have a chance of getting into a PhD program such as Vanderbilt University.
However, what really set me apart was that I was already thoroughly trained in paleontological research. That research was not provided to me by classwork at FHSU; it was provided to me by the Sternberg Museum. Dr. Laura Wilson and Dr. Aly Baumgartner saw my drive and my potential as a scientist, and they set me up to perform high-quality research on the collections at the Sternberg Museum, all while I was volunteering as a docent, at events and in the fossil preparation lab.
The research I conducted as an undergraduate was similar to that of a masters student. It was THIS experience from the Sternberg Museum that allowed me to get accepted into five different PhD programs.
It was THIS experience from the Sternberg Museum that allowed me to get accepted into the Biological Sciences PhD at Vanderbilt University, which is an extremely competitive program. It was THIS experience from the Sternberg Museum that allowed me to start my PhD and immediately begin research at the age of 21. FHSU helped, but the Sternberg Museum made it possible.
The work I did at the Sternberg Museum was so exciting and important, that I took time out of my own PhD studies and writing the second chapter of my dissertation to write a publication about the research we did at the Sternberg, which has been released as a pre-print and will be published in the coming months (Wooten, Brynn and Baumgartner, Aly and Peng, Amanda and Wilson, Laura, Revisiting the depositional environment and paleoecology of the Late Miocene Minium Quarry (Kansas, U.S.A) using sedimentological, taphonomic and biologic features.
Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=7519459 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.7519459).
The research that comes out of the amazing collections held at the Sternberg Museum is extremely important and cannot be lost. As a paleontologist, I can attest to how unethical and detrimental it would be if these collections were sold in any way, shape, or form.
These collections MUST remain in the public trust and MUST stay together. Not only are these collections historically important, they are also scientifically invaluable. For science to be “good science” it has to be reproducible.
If specimens are in private collections and not available to paleontologists, the research and those experiments are no longer reproducible. The research conducted on the collections in the Sternberg Museum is important, and the entire field of paleontology knows it.
Everytime I attend a conference (every year since 2021), I chat with other paleontologists, and essentially all of them know about the Sternberg Museum.
I have even had this conversation with people in the United Kingdom, who knew of the Sternberg. Not only does the Sternberg Museum put FHSU and Hays in the spotlight for Kansas, it elevates them for the rest of the world, particularly in the field of paleontology. The collections are world-renowned. They simply cannot be lost.
In a time where science is being systematically attacked, institutions like the Sternberg Museum of Natural History need to be protected more than ever. Allow the university I love to be part of the solution. Allow the community I love to be part of the people who fight back. Allow the university and museum that I love to be a beacon of hope for science, a place of knowledge for everyone, and a continuing point of inspiration for generations to come.
I want to reiterate that the Sternberg Museum is the sole reason I attended Fort Hays State University. The Sternberg Museum is the sole reason that FHSU now has a Goldwater Scholar. The Sternberg Museum is the sole reason that FHSU has another NSF GRFP recipient.
The Sternberg Museum is the sole reason that an important research paper about the fossils in the collections will be coming out soon with myself as the first author.
The Sternberg Museum is the reason I was accepted into Vanderbilt University and am successfully continuing my streak of being awarded many national awards. The Sternberg Museum is the reason I am conducting high-quality, exciting and impactful paleontological research at Vanderbilt.
The Sternberg Museum is the reason I am the person I am today. Please, do not take away this staple of western Kansas, this amazing museum that provides endless amazement, wonder, love and appreciation for science, “unloved” animals, and paleontology.
Do not take away the place that allowed me to find so much success in my young career. Not only would it be a loss for me, it would be an unmeasurable loss for the Hays community, Kansas and the entire paleontology world.
I am so proud and grateful of the Hays community for rallying behind the Sternberg. It brings me so much joy to see that the museum has impacted everyone else in similar ways. Together, we can save this amazing museum!
—Brynn Wooten, PhD Candidate, Vanderbilt University, FHSU alumni class of 2023