We recently connected with Ernesto Rodriguez and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Ernesto, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
I was trained as a school psychologist, but art is my heritage. I grew up in Cuba among brushes and paint and credit my grandfather, a renowned muralist, for instilling in me a love of art. While working as a school psychologist in Saudi Arabia at The Saudi Arabian International School, I met Jim Doran, a National Geographic photographer. Doran’s compelling and alluring images rekindled my childhood love of art. He was also gracious enough to take me under his wing and guide my vision. In 1988 I quit my profession and founded Ernesto Rodriguez Photography, focusing on fine art and industrial commercial work.
In 1998, after visiting a friend in the hospital, I went to northern California to do a photo shoot amongst the Redwood giants. While sitting in the forest, waiting for the light, I started thinking about my friend in the hospital. Hospitals have always given me the creeps, primarily because of the sterile, bleak, and blank environment. I thought, “Poor Dave, they didn’t even give him the binoculars needed to watch TV”. The room had this tiny TV way up in the corner of the room. There was such a feeling of helpless doom and discomfort while visiting in the hospital. Upon my return home from the shoot, I came across the research of Dr. Roger Ulrich. Ulrich found that when patients had views out windows to nature, it calmed them, lowered their blood pressure, minimized the need for pain medication and resulted in shorter hospital stays. He then showed patients photographs of nature, and lo and behold, the reactions were the same. His seminal study was published in 1984 and inspired hundreds of follow up studies that verified his findings. All I could think of was, “Why isn’t this research being applied to hospital settings?” Then the light went on, “What if you put nature images on the curtains that surrounds the patient’s bed”. In 2002 I launched Sereneview®, which makes nature imagery an integral part of healthcare facilities in the form of cubical curtains, wall murals, ceiling tiles, and window tints. Sereneview® curtains have won numerous health care awards and are installed in over 3,000 healthcare facilities throughout Europe, Australia and the USA. They have literally helped millions of hospital patients and staff.
In 2015 I became a volunteer park ranger on Catalina Island. The training included becoming a certified interpretive naturalist. The certification came with a subscription to the North American Association of Environmental Educators. I soon began reading about Attention Restoration Theory which came out of the University of Michigan in the early 80s. It was followed by decades of validating and supporting research. When we view trees, real or photographic, it calms us, helps us focus and communicate. The connecting research dot was a longitudinal study that found students who had consistent views to trees out classroom windows did better academically and emotionally. That made the light come on again, screaming “Why isn’t this being used in schools?” I canvased my educator friends and they agreed it was a no brainer. In 2019 I founded the nonprofit Nature In The Classroom® to apply this science by putting ceiling murals of tree canopies in classrooms.
It took three principals at our local school before one would allow me to put a ceiling mural in a classroom. The first ceiling went into a kindergarten classroom. Kindergartners are unfiltered critics, they will tell you instantly if something is working or not. The biggest compliment I have received came from a kindergartner. She summed up the science in four words. I asked her what she liked about having a tree in her classroom. She was sitting on her calves, straightened up, flicked her hair back and said to me, “It calms me up”. Then the pandemic hit, resulting in the appearance of elevated anxiety and mental health issues among 25% of students. The tree ceilings have been significant in helping kids manage anxiety and return to the classroom. The vice principal at a middle school relayed the story of a fifth grader who had an emotional meltdown. They brought her under the tree ceiling and it instantly calmed her. They witnessed this calming effect over and over and had me place ceilings in additional classrooms. Tree ceilings are currently installed in eight school districts throughout California and Colorado. This project has united my love of art and education with my training as a school psychologist and my current role as a volunteer park ranger and naturalist.
Ernesto, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Our hospital curtains and tree ceiling murals for classrooms are evidence-based products. They are the embodiment and application of 40+ years of research in the fields of healthcare and education. My training as a school psychologist versed me in understanding research in a given context. It is a perfect marriage to the exactness and science of creating imagery. When I founded Nature In The Classroom in 2019 it felt like my two careers joined hands. The great thing about working with kids is they pretty much call it like they see it. It is the single thing that I missed the most after leaving education. My experience has also given me a “behind the scenes” look at the problems facing educators: inner city schools lack greenery, classrooms often don’t have outside views, and over 10 million children learn in portable classrooms due to overcrowding. All these things influence a child’s ability to settle in and pay attention.
The difficult part of introducing a new idea to educators is that they are so busy that they don’t have the time to closely look at an idea. Classrooms have remained unchanged for decades. People don’t like change. Then there is the bureaucracy and who ultimately is responsible for accepting a new way of doing something. New ideas take an average of 17-20 years to become mainstream in a given population. In a meeting with the school administrators of a California school district, one person asked if I had research showing that looking at trees was harmful to the brain. Great skepticism will be the reaction of the majority, but 2% will see it and understand it right away. They are the innovators and are followed by the next 18%, the early adopters. Once you cross that threshold the idea moves into the mainstream. So, your initial efforts to spread a new idea is to find the innovators and early adopters. What is funny is that kids get this right away, preschoolers to high school. They instantly see that having a tree ceiling mural in the classroom instantly calms you, helps you focus and communicate.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
The best way to attract new clients and gain exposure is to find professional organizations that your product is aligned with. Join those organizations and become an affiliate. At their yearly conferences present a workshop and/or conference session outlining the problem that you solve in their industry. Additionally, become a sponsor and an exhibitor at these conferences. This is as targeted as it gets! Also, it is important to seek podcast opportunities, as well as industry media exposure when you’ve reached a milestone. You will be among like-minded people and it opens the synergism door to connecting with people and companies. If possible, form strategic partnerships with companies that can use your product.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Another word for resilience is love, the love of what you do. It is what fuels you through the hurdles and lows along the journey. I recently organized a fundraiser. I thought that if I could get a celebrity as a spokesperson to promote our project to their millions of followers on social media, we would do ok. I researched celebrities who voiced their support for education, then sent out 120 emails to their agents asking if they would advocate our project to their followers. One celebrity responded, she has 50 million followers on her social media. All the elements for a successful fundraiser were in place. It was a total failure, not one donation was generated. It sent me into a dark “throw in the towel” tailspin for several days. The thing that helps me sort out deep issues is getting outside and hiking. Being out in nature after all is what we are bringing into classrooms. While on a hike I began thinking about all of the progress we had made. The volume of stories of the tree ceilings helping kids manage anxiety and in general boosting mental health in the classroom. The number of kids who have personally thanked me for putting trees in their classrooms. Then the thought popped into my head which made the world seem right. For the next fundraiser, hire a professional fundraiser!
My work as a photographer is on exhibit at the Smithsonian and in the Curator’s Collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. But nothing beats the joy and sense of accomplishment as having a kindergartner thank you and compliment your work. It is pure love! The love that drives me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.natureintheclassroom.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natureintheclassroom/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NatureInTheClassroom
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ernierodriguez/
Image Credits
All images: © Ernesto Rodriguez