“Science is something that I can’t say by words, but I can say it with (my) heart,” said Sofia Ruiz, 9. She’s a fourth grade student at Rosa Parks Elementary School and also learns at the Ocean Discovery Institute in City Heights.

Sofia enjoys working with robotics. “It’s fun. You get to decide what you want to do with the robots, and kind of go to Mars (with them).”

She is one of the 10,000 students in City Heights educated in the past year through programs at the Ocean Discovery Institute. The non-profit organization supports all 14 neighborhood campuses from elementary to high school offering children from low-income families access to a science education in ways they could never afford.

The free learning is led by teachers paid through the federal AmeriCorps Agency which the Trump Administration is in the process of defunding and dismantling through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Some of the AmeriCorps Fellows laid off this week from their work at the Ocean Discovery Institute. This is an undated photo from the non profit organization’s annual report for 2024-2025.

“We weren’t oblivious to the things that were happening at the federal level, but we never thought it would hit us right at home, right in our neighborhood,” said Rudy Vargas, board chairman of Ocean Discovery, and a graduate of the program he experienced back in 2005.

Vargas told NBC 7 that last Monday the staff was notified in an email from DOGE that $300,000 would be cut immediately from the budget.

The federal action forced a layoff of every teacher, and a scramble to raise money.

“We have to re-strategize. We have to dig deeper and make budget cuts. There are things we’re considering actively, but we’re hoping we don’t get there,” Vargas said.

In order to keep programs going at least until the end of the month, board members plan to dig into reserves, absorb some cost, and begin a major fundraising campaign to make up the lost federal funding.

We have to re-strategize. We have to dig deeper and make budget cuts. There are things we’re considering actively, but we’re hoping we don’t get there.

Rudy Vargas, Board Chairman of Ocean Discovery Institute

The Institute’s website has been updated to include a call to the community to help with $50 monthly donations to bring teachers back for the next school year.

Otherwise, programming will end in the fall.

That will leave thousands of students like Sofia Ruiz without the place they’ve come to rely on.

“It’s a fun place to be, where a kid can be a kid,” she said.