Kent Wang

From the flagship museum at the National Mall to the picturesque hangar near Dulles Airport, Kent Wang enables visitors to gain insight of hundreds of aircraft, spacecraft, and associated artifacts. He strives to provide tours for visitors that foster an ongoing relationship with the museum and its varied programs. His dedication as a volunteer exemplifies his great enthusiasm, experience, and professionalism in the area of aviation, spaceflight, and space exploration focus on important achievements.

A Biography

Mr. Kent Wang fell in love with both aviation and the Smithsonian Institute since he moved to Washington, D. C. in 1995. He was attracted to the National Air and Space Museum years ago and decided that he could best contribute to the future of aviation by joining the volunteer corps. In 1997, he began working as an Information Specialist at the Smithsonian. Most important, Kent was committed to serves as the focal point and personal face for all visitor activities at the museum.

My Story

The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) is one gigantic museum with two locations. Fat planes, skinny planes, angry planes, pretty planes, planes that fly high and planes that fly low, planes that go fast and planes that go slow, nearly 275 in all, sitting in the galleries throughout the downtown museum and floor and dangling from the hangar roof so that visitors can view them in genuine flight poses, banking and diving and cruising and even traveling upside-down.

My Commitments

The word "Docent" derives from a Latin root meaning to teach. For the past one hundred years, docents in Smithsonian museums have been a living link between museum collections and the public. Docents lead visitors toward a deeper understanding of museum artifacts and the history, people, and stories behind them. Visitors come to the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) from many different backgrounds and with diverse interests. Mr. Kent Wang's goal as a volunteer docent is to provide all visitors with an exciting and engaging experience that gives them a new understanding of the largest collection of historic air and spacecraft in the world.

Aviation Enthusiast

US Department of Commerce Employee Profile

     Kent Wang may be an intellectual property technologist at U.S. Department of Commerce

during the week, but during the weekends he enjoys volunteering up to four hours every two weeks to serve visitors from local communities and tourists from abroad. Since 1997, Kent has been a weekend volunteer docent at the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) flagship museum in downtown Washington, D.C., and also at the Udvar-Hazy Center in Dulles, Va.

The America’s Team

The America’s Team comprises an elite group of enthusiasts: Ken Young, Ed DiMonda, Frank Gallo, Jim Iannuzzi, Curtis Marshall, Vince Massimini, Anne Miller, Hector Negroni, Elizabeth Nesbitt, Joe Ramunni, and Kent Wang.

Maximize the educational opportunities for all visitors

(Nominees for the 2012 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals Awards)

Public service is founded on the idea that people can make a difference. Maretta Hemsley-Wood and Margy Natalie are the embodiment of that ideal by increasing the diffusion of knowledge. Their work in the docent program of the National Air and Space Museum enables educational programming for school and adult groups to make a demonstrable impact by preserving national heritage, imparting knowledge, and sharing national resources worldwide.