I watched Hidden Figures first with my family and now I had the chance to watch it with my peers here at Cornell. Hidden Figures is a movie that touches my heart. It speaks of 4 women who despite racial and gender barriers are able to succeed and show the world that women indeed hold the same skill set and ability as men. They are such an inspiration because as an engineer myself, I know that women are still a minority in the field, even though Cornell Engineering has pushed for the engineering college to be 50% women and 50% men. Being able to overcome barriers that are so strong in society is a very difficult task and that these four women were able to become educated with engineering degrees in such a hostile world and then be able to play a role in such a big achievement as sending a man to the moon is so so astounding. These women have proved that even in the hardest of times, strength and hope can make even the unthinkable possible. That is a message we all should learn

Also I sat there listening to the characters speak math and science and I was able to understand some of it! They referenced Gram Schmidt and Euclidean coordinates, which are theorems and concepts that are part of linear algebra! That made me feel good and a little nerdy, but hey nerds are cool.