Nonprofit creates education fund in honor of Palm Aire resident

When Palm Aire’s Nick Barbi served as a chaperone for his wife, MaryJo Barbi, as she took a group of students to see a “Man of La Mancha” on Broadway in New York City, he took away a lesson that he carries with him now, 55 years later.

He was amazed at her ability to get the necessary permissions to have the students travel from Colonie High School near Albany, New York and coordinate a field trip to the Big Apple that gave many students, and Nick Barbi, a first-time experience with Broadway. 

The lesson: Educational opportunities can make a lasting impact.

“It was the first time I realized one could think outside the box, take leaps from the comfort of the norms and make a positive impact on young minds,” Nick Barbi said. 

It’s a lesson Barbi wants to use with the newly created Mary Jo Barbi STEAM Education and Scholarship Fund, which was established in honor of Mary Jo Barbi, who died May 29.

The fund is a part of the nonprofit Nick Barbi founded, the Sarasota-Manatee Science and Technology Society. 

Courtesy image

Nick Barbi said his wife was always the one to recognize people for their accomplishments and make them feel valued. She had a passion for education and inspiring students, he said. 

He said if she were alive, she would have refused the recognition of an educational fund being named in her honor. 

The fund will provide seed money for the Science and Technology’s educational programming, including the Community Observations and Analysis using Spectroscopic Techniques and Wetlands Imaging to build Stewardship of the Environment (COASTWISE) program. 

COASTWISE is a pilot program with the Faulhaber Fab Lab in Sarasota for high school students. The program will educate students on topics such as aerial imaging of Sarasota and Manatee counties, visible and near infrared spectroscopy and more. 

Barbi said the pilot program, which takes place Aug. 5-7, will allow the nonprofit to determine how to hone in its syllabus and gauge the appropriate academic rigor for the course. 

The fund also will be used for future courses, one of which Barbi hopes will be a program in which participants can create a tech business. Participants can create a prototype, marketing plan, product introduction plan and more. 

Barbi said he would like to see the Science and Technology Society be able to accomplish three goals — to train students to make their own decisions based on research they conduct, to make Sarasota and Manatee an attractive area for tech start-ups and to try to build respect for science.