Avian education center prepares to take flight in Pittsburgh
The Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation is coming together with the National Aviary to build out an education wing in the aviary’s recently acquired conservation center in Fox Chapel, the National Aviary SK Rockwell Conservancy.
From elementary school students to post-graduate researchers, the Benedum Avian Education Center aims to equip students with experience-based programming in hybrid indoor and outdoor classroom settings, focusing on environmental science and conservation initiatives.
“High school and college students today are eager for opportunities that provide hands-on experience and meaningful insight into potential career paths,” said the National Aviary’s director of animal programs and experiences, Cathy Schlott.
“As the need for skilled professionals in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and environmental fields grows, so does the importance of nurturing curiosity and passion early on, especially in communities where these opportunities are scarce.”
The Education Center will be housed in the former Benedum Middle School at Shady Side Academy — a property acquired a year ago and donated to the National Aviary to create the National Aviary S Kent Rockwell Conservation Center.
The campus will include four focus areas: the Center for Avian Preservation, the Avian Veterinary Teaching Hospital, the Avian Conservation Research Center, as well as the Benedum Avian Education Center. With the unique avian-focused facility, the National Aviary hopes to increase its capacity to advance avian education, research, veterinary care, and advocacy.
“We know that we have such an interrelated world and that understanding and conserving and taking care of the needs that arise through the aviary are really also going to have a much more expansive impact,” said Rochelle Goodwin with the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation.
Goodwin stressed inclusion as one of the main goals for the partnership. The partners hope to attract students of all ages and backgrounds, from all over the globe. The goal is for the center to be accessible for those who share interests in conservation.
“We would love to see more people be able to access these really unique opportunities — so expanding the number and the types of folks who can come, audience members who would include students and families and educators and veterinarians and those who are interested in conservation. Seeing how that really has a ripple effect through our world.”
In a new release, the National Aviary’s executive director Cheryl Tracy said Pittsburgh’s aviary is a global leader in avian conservation through ecological research, husbandry, education and health care advancements.
“[The Benedum Avian Education Center] will be part of a larger program that will serve as a catalyst for expanding the global impact of avian conservation work by collaborating and sharing expertise with other avian and habitat conservation organizations and universities,” Tracy said.
Program development is currently underway, with full operations of the Benedum Avian Education Center anticipated in 2027.