Discover the Universe at 15: Looking Back and Looking Ahead

We're celebrating something very special! Discover the Universe's 15^th anniversary, which is absolutely a milestone. We wanted to take some time to look back on our journey with a conversation with Julie and Lindsay, examining how Discover the Universe began, how it's grown, what has stayed at the heart of the program, and what we imagine for its future.

Camille, our Communications and Education Specialist, interviewed Lindsay & Julie, which we filmed and transcribed for you! If you'd rather listen to or watch this discussion, you can find it here. Note that this transcription is a "mash-up" of our English and French discussions, so it's not precisely what was said in the video.

Camille: To start at the beginning, tell me about Discover the Universe's origins. What were those very early days like? Did you imagine it would grow into what it is today?

Julie: Not at all. I didn't think, when we started, that 15 years later we'd still be here. If I had known, I probably would have been more relaxed because it was always a struggle to find funding and keep things going.

Discover the Universe is actually a legacy program of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, which was celebrated all over the world. In Canada, there was an incredible collaboration between professional and amateur astronomers, and I was hired in the midst of that. We wanted to create something that would continue after 2009.

The first training happened in May or June 2011. It was online training, not because we were innovative and ahead of our time (this was 2011, after all) but because we didn't have the budget for me to travel across the country. We wanted to reach Canadian educators.

Eventually, we wanted the program to be bilingual. The very first training was only in French because our resources were so limited.

For the first three years, we survived on a budget of about $20,000 a year. In terms of programs, that's very small. I was only working part-time with very limited hours and a very limited budget.

But I believed in what we had set out to do. I wrote many funding proposals, and it's amazing now that this is my full-time job and that I have a team with me. It's really nice that you're both here with me today.

Camille: Based on what you said, what's been the most significant change in Discover the Universe over the years? What’s really changed in those 15 years?

Julie: For many years, it was just me, part-time, trying to secure support and funding. Things changed when the Dunlap Institute at the University of Toronto adopted Discover the Universe. That really saved the program and made it more stable. Then another major turning point was when I was able to hire Lindsay.

She's been with me since 2018, and what I loved about bringing her on was that I intentionally looked for someone with a completely different skill set from mine. I think that's what really helped us grow together. Lindsay, I don't know if you want to say a few words about when you joined?

Lindsay: We had already known each other a little and had worked together on a separate project. I was really excited to help because, when I got access to the backend —the files, the website, everything— I immediately thought, "I could clean this up."

I could help streamline things, and I was really excited about that. Helping small organizations is something that genuinely makes me happy. I love making things look pretty. Working on the website and updating our brand became a bit of a pet project that I've never really let go of. I continue trying to make us look as good as possible. I don't know if I've answered the question exactly, but I absolutely fell in love with helping elevate everything. And I hope this is true, but I think it allowed Julie to focus more on the content itself rather than worrying about editing, administration, and all the behind-the-scenes details.

Julie: Definitely. I focus on the content, and you make it look pretty and sound good. That's how we still work, and it works well. 

Lindsay: I think it's a symbiosis. What I do elevates what you do, and what you do inspires what I do. It just works. I still love it.

Camille: Is there a specific project you worked on together that stands out as a significant moment, something that made you proud or felt like a turning point?

Lindsay: For me, that would be Astro at Home, when the pandemic hit and kids were suddenly at home. Our programming had always been geared toward teachers, but we pivoted. Within three days of shutdowns happening in Canada, Julie and I had launched a new program. It came out of Julie's brain, and then I made it happen technologically. We gathered astronomers from across Canada and offered daily bilingual presentations directly to kids. There were two presentations a day, five days a week.

Julie: We originally planned for two weeks, and then we stretched it to eleven [weeks] because the lockdown lasted longer than expected.

Lindsay: Even recounting it now, I'm amazed. Thinking that we did that every single day, I'm like, "That can't be right." But it was really cool. We worked with people across Canada, interacted with kids every day, and it gave us a real sense of purpose during a time when I think a lot of people didn't have that feeling. It was a really significant moment for us.

Julie: Astro at Home was incredible, but for me, I also have to mention the period surrounding the 2024 total Solar Eclipse. I never thought I'd reach a point in my career where my expertise would be so needed by educators. We had so many people coming to us. We provided countless resources and distributed 300,000 eclipse glasses. The scale of it was just insane. But we made it work. We're a small team, and looking back, I think we planned it well. We organized everything, streamlined it, and multiplied our impact. By the end, we were training hundreds of teachers every week. The numbers were just staggering.

Lindsay: They really were. We had nearly 100,000 visits to our website in a short span of time. The number of interactions, emails, and resources we managed was enormous.

One thing I was especially proud of was the Indigenous knowledge documents we helped support. We didn't create them ourselves, but Indigenous contributors shared them with us, and we helped make sure they were translated into Indigenous languages and distributed more widely. That was incredibly meaningful to me. We were able to help make these resources accessible to Canadians and share ways of knowing that I think are invaluable. I was really proud of that.

Camille: What kind of impact do you hope Discover the Universe has in classrooms?

Julie: Astronomy isn't always the focus of teachers' attention the way it was during the eclipse, but I hope we're there to support them and be a credible source of information and easy-to-use activities.

We know astronomy is fascinating. Kids love it. But it can be tricky to teach if you don't have a background in it. My goal is to make it easy for teachers, interesting for students, and to help bring that curiosity and awe of the universe into classrooms. We don't think about the universe very often in our day-to-day lives, but I hope we can inspire that sense of wonder. 

Camille: It's been 15 years. What keeps you motivated after all this time?

Lindsay: I still love it. I'm the only person on the team who doesn't have an astronomy or science background. I'm an arts person. I feel like I'm constantly learning. My astronomy knowledge is always growing, and that's very cool. The universe is endlessly fascinating. 

But beyond that, the sense of camaraderie and support we have as a team makes this such a joyful place to work. When people genuinely love their work and are excited to connect with their coworkers, it gives you that motivation to keep going. I also love that we've been able to hire more people because it's allowed all of us to focus on projects we couldn't tackle before. We're always evolving. We met the moment during the pandemic. We met the moment during the eclipse. We're constantly trying to meet the world where it's at and respond to it. It's endlessly fascinating. I don't know how I couldn't be motivated to keep working here.

Julie: Astronomy education is what I love to do. I studied astronomy but realized pretty quickly that I didn't want to focus on one specific area of research. I wanted the bigger picture. I wanted to bring astronomy to the public, to schools, to children. I want to elevate scientific literacy. That's my goal. 

I also love that we train educators. We've had conversations over the years about whether we should work directly with children instead, but we've always preferred empowering teachers. Once teachers feel comfortable with astronomy, they can continue sharing it with students for twenty or thirty years. Teachers do such important work, and if we can help them even a little bit, that's meaningful. I'm definitely not running out of ideas. There are so many more things we want to do and so many more people we can reach. We're still a very small team, but I love that we can do so much with what we have. And if we didn't genuinely enjoy working together, we wouldn't still be doing this. I know there's a lot more to come.

Camille: Looking toward the future, Lindsay, is there anything you're especially excited about right now?

Lindsay: In the early days, our programming was very webinar-based. We'd have live sessions, and participants would receive additional materials by email. After the pandemic, people were tired of webinars. So we pivoted toward making our resources and guides more accessible. What that meant, though, was that some content from those earlier courses became less visible. I've been working with Julie to unpack those resources and put them onto the website in a way that's visually engaging and easier to navigate. In addition to our guides, we're making sure that everything we've built over the last fifteen years becomes directly available to people for free online. I know that sounds like I'm selling something, but I'm genuinely excited about it. It allows me to be creative. Each page is similar but slightly different, and it's a fun challenge for my brain. I just love it. I'm excited for people to access these resources more easily.

Camille: Julie, where do you see Discover the Universe in another five, ten, or even fifteen years?

Julie: It's interesting because, over the years, simply making this my career was a goal.

Being able to create jobs in science communication was another huge milestone. I struggled to build my own career in science communication and education, so I'm glad to be able to offer those opportunities to others.

At one point, I imagined Discover the Universe becoming a much bigger program with many full-time staff. I still have ideas for growth, but I also think becoming too large would change what makes it special. I don't want it to go back to being just me, I do love having a small team where we work well together, where I can still create content and connect directly with teachers. I hope we keep going, reach more educators, offer more training, and continue building great resources. The reality of small organizations is that we move from one funding proposal to another. There's uncertainty. But it also allows us to dream about what comes next.

I hope that fifteen years from now, we're still doing this and still loving what we do.

Lindsay: I think we'll also continue leaning into community partnerships. We've always collaborated with other organizations involved in science communication and education, but I think we'll keep exploring innovative ways to get our content into communities we can't always reach directly. That's something we talk about all the time.

Camille: Before we close, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Julie: I just want to thank everyone who has supported us over the years. If no one came to our trainings or workshops, we wouldn't still be here. It's wonderful to connect with people and know that what we do fills a need. Thank you to everyone who's visited our website, used our resources, interacted with us, or followed us on social media. It's nice to have this community. 

Lindsay: Absolutely. I echo that sentiment.

Camille: It was lovely to join you today. Again, happy 15 years to Discover the Universe. What a milestone. Here's to the next fifteen years!

Lindsay: Absolutely. Thanks, Camille.

Julie: Thank you.

A look back at Discover the Universe!