STAR (Science Theater Art Recreation) Education, began its work in the political and economic environment of the 1980’s, when latchkey children and greatly diminished resources for California public schools emerged as two major challenges to child welfare. In 1986, husband and wife team Katya and Erick Bozzi Sr. activated parents, professionals and the10th District PTA in their West LA community to address the critical need for safe, high quality after-school opportunities for children. Together they mobilized alternative and innovative resources to enhance youth education and development, bolster the struggling public school in their community, and provide a safe and supportive environment for children after school.

STAR recognized the need to mobilize and leverage the local public school as a vehicle for safe, high quality, after school care. In 1993, STAR Education was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

What began more than 20 years ago with two innovative parents, a handful of outstanding professionals from the community, and one elementary school in West Los Angeles, has been cultivated into a large-scale effort including over 600 committed professionals, as well as partnerships with government agencies, private organizations, parents and community groups.

In 1997, Erick, Sr. and Katya Bozzi, and their children, Erick II and Katiana, founded the STAR ECO Station as a subsidiary of STAR Education.  The STAR ECO Station is an environmental science museum and exotic wildlife rescue facility in Culver City, Calif., where visitors have the chance to meet real animals, and learn how to do their part in protecting the planet. Dedicated to the mission of Preservation Through Education, STAR ECO Station offers inspiring, interactive encounters with real exotic animals at its rescue facility, and in classrooms in over 50 California school districts. STAR ECO Station provides environmental science classes through STAR Education’s after school programming.  In partnership with government and community environmental organizations such as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, California Department of Fish and Game, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Surfrider Foundation, and Santa Monica Baykeeper, STAR ECO Station rescues illegal and abandoned exotic wildlife. In 2006, the STAR ECO Station opened its first satellite location in Rocklin, CA.

STAR’s on-campus, after-school programs support and enhance school-day curriculum and broaden the amenities that schools offer their communities, reinforcing the public school site as both the community focal point, and as a center for holistic, interdisciplinary learning. 

Today, STAR benefits thousands of children and their families throughout California. Each day, STAR comes to school campuses in over 40 school districts throughout California to connect students to the resources they need to engage, learn and achieve for life.