Meet Ben, the Executive Director of Imagination Station in Lafayette. With a passion for learning and teaching, Ben is helping spark curiosity and creativity for kids and families every day. Learn more about Ben below and why Imagination Station is a wonderful place to take the kids.
- How long have you worked for this business? I've worked for Imagination Station since September 2025.
- What is your favorite thing about working there? My favorite thing about working at Imagination Station is getting to share the wonders of science with everyone! The world of science is so vast, and there is truly something engaging and exciting for every kid who walks through the door. I love being able to provide them with hands-on opportunities to foster their creativity, spark their imagination, and add a little more science to their life.
- What drew you to this line of work? I love learning and teaching. I have a varied background that started out in engineering and made its way to teaching speech and debate to 4th-12th graders. Every day here offers a new opportunity for me to exercise those different parts of my brain. I think that most people are the same way. Even though we tend to spend the bulk of our time in one narrow field or career, we have a lot more untapped joys than we often realize. As the Executive Director, I take pride in getting to help build a space where those interests can be explored in so many different ways.
- Tell us about you… are you from the Lafayette area? Have you worked at other places in the area? Anything about your family you’d like to share? I was born and raised in the Greater Lafayette Area. In the past, I was an assistant debate coach at West Lafayette High School as well as Purdue University. I also worked for MatchBOX Coworking Studio and the Community Foundation of Greater Lafayette. I am currently engaged have two foster children.
- What is something that may surprise people about your job? Something about my job that might surprise people is how many different areas of focus there are. There's a lot more going on at Imagination Station than just science exhibits. We really value hands-on learning and providing a diverse range of opportunities for this. In addition to exhibits, we also do regular weekend science activities, host camps, birthday parties, and field trips, and of course run our annual Hands On Transportation event every September. It's a ton of fun to be constantly planning different activities across a ton of different STEAM subjects.
- Is there a project you have worked on or done that you are most proud of? So far, my favorite thing I've worked on has been our Christmas/Holiday market. We really wanted to come up with something fun, science-related, and winter/Christmas related for our December events. Of course, the first thing that came to mind is something parents may not enjoy as much as kids right now: 67! From there the question was, how can we turn something seemingly meaningless into something fun and educational for kids? Our office manager came up with the great idea to match it up with the 67th element of the periodic table, Holmium, which just so happens to be a pretty important element in science, and also just so happens to have the abbreviation Ho; put three of those together and you've got some Ho, Ho, Ho Christmas fun! I ended up designing and 3-D printing little tiles of Holmium similar to how it's shown on the periodic table to give out as Christmas ornaments. It was very rewarding to take an idea from start to finish, and perhaps more importantly, make something good out of a phrase that is probably driving parents around the country mad!
- Any future plans you’d like to share about the business? Yes! We are constantly improving and growing with new activities every week, as well as fresh exhibits, camps, and movie nights. Recently we received on loan from Purdue University a wonderful exhibit set exploring the "world of nano," which has been a ton of fun for kids to explore and play with. We also just finished another Harry Potter camp, which was super enjoyable to put on. In the upcoming months, we will be hosting more camps, including another Harry Potter camp, so stay tuned for that! We also have new science programming every Saturday and Sunday, and recently brought back our Toddler Thursdays event on Thursdays which runs from 10:30-12:00 each Thursday.
- Any funny or wild stories to share? Not yet! Which is probably a good thing, haha!
- Do you have a favorite local spot (besides where you work) to visit in town? Definitely MatchBOX Coworking Studio. I love being a member there. The free coffee alone makes it worth it, but there's a wonderful community of people there, and tons of events that are highly enjoyable to attend.
- Any upcoming events that we should know about? Every weekend we have fun new events to attend! Coming up we have an event where you can make your own seismograph and learn about earthquakes. We also have one this month where you can learn about polar bears! And as I mentioned before, we will have more camps coming up over Spring Break and around that time, including another Harry Potter camp which was a huge hit with the kids!
- Anything else you’d like us to know? A lot of people tell me things like "I've been thinking of visiting Imagination Station but haven't gotten around to it yet" or "I went there a long time ago with my kids and loved it but now they're too old," to which I say there is no time like the present to check us out again! Whether your child is 2 years old or 12 years old, there is a ton of fun content for kids to enjoy! And truly there is no age ceiling on learning! We've even had adults come visit the space on their own, and they had a blast learning about things like Ferrofluid and Wind Turbines. I always like to say you're never too old to learn—and you'd be surprised how many fully grown adults will have fun exploring and playing once they get past the worry of being judged. The sense of exploration and wonder that kids have is something that we can all benefit from, and our goal at Imagination Station is to help every single person that walks through our doors find that spark.
To learn more about Imagination Station visit their website.
