“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” – Virginia Woolf
Imagine a place where teens can go, a place to call their own, and, if they so choose, a place to construct a career. X Studio is just that. Explora Science Center’s newly expanded space features 8,000 square feet dedicated to teens with an appetite for science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM). 
X Studio is more than a place to hang out, though teens can do that in rooms dedicated to lounging and brainstorming. X Studio, which was slated to open Feb. 11, builds on Explora’s programming for teens and provides a space where 13- to 20-year-olds can journey into STEAM topics in their own individual ways. 
X Studio is a jumping off place for teens’ imagination, wallpapered with opportunities and ideas. 
x Teen Science Café will offer informal, activity-based evenings where teens as young as 12 can connect and talk with STEAM professionals. 
x A variety of weekly STEAM programs will take place at X Studio as well as at partner organizations. Teens who want to learn about a particular trade or the health field can meet the folks at local companies who will feed their interests and provide opportunities to connect to careers. 
x Teen nights will provide times for teens to socialize with each other, build relationships and explore both X Studio and Explora.
x Meet a Scientist events will allow teens to participate in tabletop activities and demonstrations that showcase the work of local STEAM professionals. 
X Studio also has STEAM pathways that serve as bricks in the yellow brick road that leads them to their own individual Oz. Want to turn that passion for fabric into a career? X Studio has Maker Space, where tinkering on a sewing machine with unusual materials can create something unique. The Maker in Residence opportunity is a workshop-based program which dives deeply into a subject. Career Pathways internships can take place at Explora or a partner organization. Life skills support provides future leaders with financial literacy, scholarship sessions and discussions around mental health. X Studio was designed to have many pathways mapped toward the future.
Roughly 1,500 square feet of the new space is dedicated to a public area called STEM in the Burque, with exhibits that focus on the STEM happening in Albuquerque. The exhibits were co-developed with local STEM employers — such as Sandia National Laboratories, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, Positive Energy Solar and health research labs — in collaboration with Explora designers and teens. 
“We put all three perspectives together to make these exhibits — both about the science that is currently happening right now, but also about the career pathways,” said Explora co-Executive Director Kristin Leigh. “I think families with younger children are going to find a lot of interest in that exhibition, and it is open to all ages.” 
There also are other ways for younger kids to glimpse X Studio. Although the Maker Space will be reserved for teens in the afternoons and evenings, younger kids can visit during school hours. 
“We will have some workshops we’re going to announce that will be very similar to camps that happen at Explora,” X Studio Program Manager Sheldon Hamilton added about upcoming programming. He said younger kids involved at Explora can scale up to the Maker Space as they grow. “So if they are working on sewing in an Explora space, they can then go over to the X Studio side when they are older, where you are sewing in different threads,” he said. 
“Part of me is jealous that we didn’t have this here when I was growing up,” said Hamilton, who began visiting Explora through after-school programs when the new building opened in 2003. “But it is really awesome that it is here now.” 
Hamilton wants teens to know X Studio is a safe space to move out of their learning comfort zone and that if they try something that’s not for them, there are always other things to explore. 
“You can do it,” he said, “It’s the dignity of risk. X Studio is a great space to take that risk and learn that new thing and not worry about what happens if you don’t know it.” 
Or, when teens are interested in what they’re doing and get really good at it, they can level it up to try new things in that realm. “You can connect with other people who are doing that every day at their job,” he said.
Hamilton has some advice for younger kids who are not quite X Studio age: “Keep coming to Explora; there will be that growth. You’ll get to see the space, see the careers.” 
Leigh sees the high wire bike at Explora as a good example of how younger kids can develop an ongoing interest in what’s available at X Studio. Young visitors see the high wire bike and know they have to be a certain height and weight to ride it. 
“Kids come back time and again until they see that they are tall enough,” she said. “It is something for them to look forward to. I hope that X Studio being there, kids will keep coming back and wonder, ‘When am I going to be old enough to do those programs?’ It is something for them to look forward to.”