Jackson brings diversity to the "whitest state"
For 80 years now The Jackson Laboratory has been an institutional landmark on coastal Maine’s Mount Desert Island. Founded in 1929 to investigate the genetics of cancer, The Lab is located on a remote island in the North Atlantic.
Why? Because, in an era that pre-dated widespread use of air-conditioning, Bar Harbor’s mild summer temperatures were more conducive to the welfare of laboratory mice than were the sweltering dog days of Boston.
While Downeast Maine provides tourists and residents a mild mid-summer climate, it’s never been a Mecca of migration. Historically, racial and ethnic diversity here was limited to small enclaves of Native Americans and an influx of English and French Canadian settlers. Not much has changed in that regard.
The last major U.S. Census figures showed Maine to be the whitest state in America and showed Hancock County, home to Bar Harbor, to be 97.6 percent Caucasian. While diversity may be the norm in many regions of the United States, it’s not here.
Curiously, The Jackson Laboratory is an exception. Its Bar Harbor campus is staffed by nearly 1,300 people, most of them, like most of Maine, Caucasians. But, unlike most of Maine, in this mix are people who came to work here from at least 25 countries, among them Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Croatia, England, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Malaysia, Israel, Japan, the Philippine Islands, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Taiwan, Tanzania The Netherlands and Vietnam.
This level of diversity not only enhances the workplace experience for The Jackson Laboratory’s staff, but also has a significant multi-cultural impact on the Bar Harbor community. While many of Downeast Maine’s elementary school students will enter high school without ever interacting with students grounded in other cultures, that can’t be said for the 438 students at the K-8 Conners-Emerson School in Bar Harbor.
The school’s current enrollment includes 33 students who collectively reflect a wide range of ethnic and cultural diversity. They include 22 students of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, seven African-Americans, and four Hispanics. Many of these students, like many of their 405 Caucasian counterparts, are the sons and daughters of Jackson Laboratory staff.
Beyond its immediate surroundings, The Jackson Laboratory’s popular Summer Student Program last year welcomed 31 high school and college students with a special interest in hands-on scientific research. The program’s 2008 participants included 12 minority students, many from economically challenged urban environments. For as many as 11 weeks, these students lived on campus and worked one-on-one with some of world’s best biomedical researchers.
Contributing directly to the ethnic and cultural mix of The Mount Desert Island community is only one of the many ways in which The Jackson Laboratory benefits Downeast Maine, as it has now for 80 years.
