Soleil Aster started out teaching STEM to kids when she joined the Hanford Mills Museum team in 2022. Soleil holds a bachelors in Geology from Binghamton University. She loves seeing teamwork in action every day among all of the HMM staff. Soleil loves seeing the moment of understanding on a kid’s face when they learn something new about the world around them while visiting HMM.  Soleil’s favorite historical equipment demonstrated at Hanford Mills is the Mickel Machine. Invented by William Mickel, a cooper in Oneonta, it was used to create tops for barrels quickly. Soleil loves that this is an example of ingenuity right here in the backyard of Hanford Mills Museum.

In her free time, Soleil competes on Oneonta’s own Hill City Rollers roller derby team. She also loves setting new records in the videogame world. You can also find Soleil using her antique, hand cranked sewing machine or reading fantasy novels such as Sabriel by Garth Nix.