From Museum Visitor to STEM Leader
How a third-grade field trip sparked a lifelong passion for science
Maria Gonzalez remembers the exact moment her future changed—standing in front of the giant T-Rex skeleton at age nine, mesmerized by the scale and storytelling of the exhibit. That single visit to the Perot Museum during her elementary school field trip ignited a curiosity about the natural world that would shape every decision she made for the next two decades.
Growing up in a single-parent household on Dallas’s south side, Maria didn’t have access to the kind of enrichment programs that might have introduced her to science in any meaningful way. But the Perot Museum made it free and accessible. She returned again and again, eventually bringing her own friends from school. By middle school, she was a regular at the Museum’s weekend STEM workshops, where mentors encouraged her to think bigger about what was possible.
Today, Maria is a biophysicist at UT Southwestern Medical Center, leading a research team focused on cancer cell behavior. She credits the Perot Museum not just with sparking her interest in science, but with showing her that someone who looked like her, from her neighborhood, could belong in a world of discovery and innovation. Last year, she returned to the Museum to mentor students in the very programs that shaped her trajectory. She brings her nieces and nephews regularly, continuing the cycle of inspiration that started with that first awestruck moment in front of the T-Rex.