Deadline Looms to Give Grosse Pointer Month at Museum

On Wednesday, the Museum of Science and Industry (MSI) in Chicago will reveal which lucky individual will live inside the museum 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for one month. Among the six finalists in MSI's second annual Month at the Museum contest is Grosse Pointe Park resident Motoko Maegawa, who needs online votes to win this plum assignment.

MSI is asking the public to go online to vote for one of the six individuals by Monday at 6 p.m. While museum administrators will ultimately make the final selection, they will consider the public's input when deliberating. The winner, who in addition to the unusual sojourn will win $10,000, will be announced live at the museum before an audience that will include the six finalists.

MSI fan at heart

When Maegawa, who is on sabbatical from her position as head of the middle school at , told her family in July about the contest they had only one response: “You’re going to apply, right?” She visits the museum at least twice a year with her partner, Chad Goeser, and their son, Tyler Maegawa-Goeser, an eighth-grader at Liggett, and loves both its permanent and special exhibits. They knew she would find the chance to live for a month within the walls of MSI “a once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity, she said.

The winner of Month at the Museum 2 will not leave the walls of the museum from Oct. 19-Nov. 17, save for occasional museum-sanctioned outings related to the winner’s work as an MSI ambassador. While in the museum, the winner’s job will be to “live and breathe science,” interact daily with museum-goers, and report on the experience in a blog and through social media. The winner is assigned two rooms to live in—a glass-enclosed “cube” in which the public can see the museum’s “new roommate” coming and going, and a private space for sleeping and other activities. At night, the winner is free to roam wherever he or she chooses.

“If I decide one night that I want to sleep next to the [baby] chick hatchery where chicks are hatching all the time then I can take my sleeping bag and camp out there,” Maegawa said. “Or if I want to sleep down in the [WWII German submarine U-505], I can do that.”

Maegawa said she learned from an MSI representative that more than a thousand people entered Month at the Museum 2 through a lengthy application process that involved a question-and-answer portion, an essay, and a one-minute video. The museum whittled down the field to 20 individuals who were given phone interviews. From these, ten individuals were flown to Chicago to be interviewed in person, and from these, six were selected as finalists.

Maegawa is up against a marketing analyst from Chicago, a science teacher from Frankfort, IL, a retired farmer from Malden, IL, a journalist from New York City, and broadcast production assistant from Chicago. All finalists have had to pass a drug test, behavioral assessment and background checks to determine their trustworthiness inside the museum. During his or her stay, the winner will be afforded very limited access to the outside world via phone, Facebook, and email and cannot have friends or family stay overnight.

Despite being born in Detroit and spending her early childhood in Sterling Heights, Maegawa considers her home to be Newport, RI, where she moved when she was eight. After receiving her degree in education at Iowa State University, she came to Michigan for her first teaching job at Kingsbury Country Day School in Oxford, where she taught social studies for seven years before taking the job at Liggett three years ago. She and Goeser are both working on master’s degrees at Oakland University—Maegawa in history and Goeser to be a high school chemistry teacher.

Maegawa, who in her application describes herself as “hopeful, inquisitive, and spirited,” told the museum that spending a month inside its walls “is the ultimate illustration of being a lifelong learner. I work in schools and always talk the talk about immersing yourself in your education: now is the chance to walk the walk (and sleep the sleep)!”