Watching Hidden Figures for the Friday FIlm was super cool because I had never seen the movie before. I am currently taking an astronomy class about space exploration, and the first part of the semester we talked about the lunar expeditions and how the United states got there. It was great to be able to connect the Rose Scholars Program with another academic class I am taking. Also, seeing the black women of NASA get the recognition they deserved, even though long overdue, was great. It made me very emotional because there are so many fields that experience the same issues. Underrepresented people come into different fields and introduce new ways of thinking that deviate from the majority, enabling people to make these great breakthroughs. However, they work under people who do not look like them, and the recognition goes unawarded.

It was also a very heartening story; it had a feel-good ending that made me happy I attended. Ad the actual photos at the end that depicted the women who helped take America to space really grounded the film and reminded me that this is reality.

In a time of renewed racial tension and cultural divisiveness, “Hidden Figures” is a story that serves to unite and foment pride in our country’s progress. What made the message of the movie so potent was the coupling of racial desegregation with spaceflight: uniting both in the same resplendent light of achievement and onward movement. The positive associations we have for NASA and the initial push to get American astronauts into space were made in conjunction with these character’s fight for equality. Just as we were cheering on NASA we cheered them on so that they may have a just work environment to achieve those incredible missions. Reflecting, our nation has come a long way, technologically and racially, from even just 50 years ago. This movie was a nice reminder of our progress thus far and what work is still yet to be done to have a more equitable and fair world.

Hidden Figures is one of the most inspiring movies I have ever seen. I also think it’s an eye-opening movie. It’s a reminder that racism pretty much still exists, as these events happened relatively not too long ago. Black women helped put the first man on the moon, and yet this is rarely discussed in history books. Even though these women faced discrimination on a daily basis, they did not care and kept working hard. That’s why they succeeded. I took a positive message at the end of the movie too, and that is when we put our differences aside, the human race can create amazing things.

I strongly believe that diversity and representation is incredibly important, so I hope we’ll get to see many more unheard stories like this on the big screen.

I enjoyed very much watching Hidden Figures, a film directed by Theodore Melfi, based in the book by Margot Lee Shetterly.  It brings us back to the unique and incredible untold story of Katherine Jonson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae).  These three African-American women, engineers and mathematicians, worked at the newly created space agency NASA (between 1958-1963) at a time when the first human spaceflight program in the US was initiated.  It is a unique story of how these remarkable women contributed to the space program despite segregation barriers at a time when women in science were not even though off.  These three women scientists all contribute behind the launch into orbit of astronaut John Glenn, who made three orbits around earth in 1962, a stunning achievement that turned around the Space Race against the Soviet Union. This historic film is definitively worth seeing because it inspires us even today (56 yrs later) as sadly we still struggle with lack of diversity, inclusion and equity in many aspects of society including in Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) careers. The story of these three visionary African American women scientists who moved gender and racial barriers against all odds can definitively inspire our generation to think big and be proactive and inclusive as we need more minorities to be part of the STEM workforce to solve the challenges that we face in the 21^st century.

During movie night, I watched a film called “Hidden Figures” which was mainly about black, female engineers working at NASA and the discrimination they faced. It was an interesting watch overall on how they were treated out NASA and what we didn’t know what was happening at the time. The main focus point I saw in the film was when people’s names weren’t being on the reports that they made. It stood out to me mainly as I never really saw a film or show that actually took something like that seriously. In like other moves or shows it was mainly a small piece of plot where the boss eventually finds out that the person who wrote the report did it. In this movie however, everyone knows she wrote the report but no one really cared. That’s a significant part of a movie and part of it connects to some arguments today. People say that work discrimination is still a thing and people argue that there is none, but this movie brings to light that 50 years ago that there was some discrimination at some of the most respected parts of the government. No matter how the argument is shown today, it can’t be argued that there wasn’t any discrimination in that period of time

First of all, I really enjoyed the characters; I felt extremely bad when Katherine screamed at the white men for treating her like a subhuman. I spent so much of the movie dreading that some kind of obstacle would be encountered by the trio. I liked the sass, their friendliness, they were generally extremely likable. After Jim Johnson met Katherine, I spent so long dreading some kind of drama in their courtship; luckily that didn’t happen. When I checked the facts behind the movie, I was a little disappointed in the fact that the movie heavily dramatizes the situation of the women, making it seem that they were facing a much larger hill that they really were. Sure, Dorothy Vaughan was definitely recognized as the first black woman supervisor with a extensive knowledge of Fortran, Mary Jackson was one of the first female engineers in NASA. Katherine Johnson was indeed requested by John Glenn to check the launch coordinates. But Katherine didn’t have to run to the colored bathroom in a different building in heels everyday. Mary didn’t have to convince the court to let her take all night classes. Dorothy was a supervisor in real life years before she was promoted in the movie. I know that it’s natural for a movie to want to dramatize; NASA treating their black female employees just the same as everyone else doesn’t have the same impact. But I dislike the fact that they changed it so drastically. Going from that point, Al Harrison not being real, being the savior of Katherine, giving her permission to attend important meetings and expand beyond her role as a lowly computer, was a bit odd . Do these women need a older white man to give them what rights they need? Why did the movie have to make him up? I enjoyed Harrison while watching, but in hindsight, something about the fact that the writers made him up bothers me somehow. Perhaps I would have enjoyed this movie more if it was a documentary and not a drama, or if it had been completely fictional.

The movie, Hidden Figures, offers a very different view, about a certain number of things, from what you would expect. Usually, study of science is thought to be largely a male dominated profession even though there is a growing number of females who are interested in this field. However, this movie focuses on a female mathematician who works for NASA and played a key role in carrying out their missions. More specifically, she calculated flight trajectories for a variety of projects. I assume the title of the movie is supposed to emphasize the fact that there are people who are very important for the success of the organization but stay behind the scenes and are left unknown to the public.

Hidden figures was so great! Taraji P hansen and all the other women in the movie played their roles so well. It’s a movie which sheds light on the issues of racism and sexism in america. The message really resonated with me because it’s something I relate to as a black female and immigrant in America. I loved how the three women broke boundaries and accomplished what had not been accomplished before. I loved that they had to fight to get what they wanted. It’s a movie that teaches about standing up for oneself and not caring about what other people think. I loved it!

I had heard of Hidden Figures but I didn’t get around to seeing it when it came out. So I was pretty excited when I saw that it was Rose Scholars event. As a woman of color who is also studying engineering, this film really resonated with me. My favorite line was when Katherine Goble said, “So yes, they let women do some things at NASA, Mr. Johnson. And it’s not because we wear skirts. It’s because we wear glasses. Have a good day.” The scene Jim Johnson was surprised to find out that Katherine Goble worked at NASA because she was a woman is still something that happens to me today. I’ve been told “oh, isn’t that something that boys study instead?” or “isn’t it harder for girls to major in that?” Even though there’s nothing inherently harder about that subject just because I’m not a boy. Like the female leads in the movie, oftentimes I feel like I have to work twice or even three times as hard just to be acknowledged or recognized. However, I do feel privileged to attend Cornell where over half of the engineering school is female. I’m glad we’re moving forward to a world where STEM fields are filled with more diverse people.

Having seen many snippets of the movie, as well as the trailer before, I was extremely excited to watch this gem of a movie. I was, initially, the most excited to watch Jim Parsons amongst the entire cast in the movie. However, as the movie went along, I was stunned by the acting by Taraji Henson and Mahershala Ali. Being the “lead couple” in the movie they describe the perfect mix of conservative and progressive lines of thinking in the 60s. While rooted in conservative beliefs and skeptical of women working, the change in Jim’s behavior over the course of the movie, given his love for Katherine was an example of splendid movie direction.

The movie is set in the time period where the Civil Rights Movement. Though the movie does make references to the sensitive times and the challenges 3 black women faced, it does not spend excessive time discussing social injustices. The movie is primarily driven by NASA’s mission to put a man in space. The movie also ends well with parallels to movie actors and the real life women who actually worked for NASA. The movie gave me goosebumps, teary eyes and immense hope. This was one of th best movies of my life.

A dream I share with many of my peers is to become an astronaut. So, I naturally gravitated towards wanting to watch “Hidden Figures.” The movie provided its viewers and immersive experience of the space race between the two superpowers of the time, The United States & The Soviet Union. I truly felt like I was with Alan Shepard and John Glenn during their space missions, with the NASA engineers during testing of the capsules, the use of the first computers produced by IBM, and many other human achievements in the fields of space travel and technology. However, in the middle of all of this, there were acts of ignorance such as segregation and sexism. The three main characters of “Hidden Figures” and their stories portray what it was like to be an African-American female working in NASA.  Mathemetician and human-computer Katherine Goble was responsible for a range of tasks. From checking for mathematical errors in her colleague’s calculation to using Euler’s Method to model the trajectories of spaceships. Yet, she was not allowed to go to the bathroom next to her work and instead has to walk a great distance to another building where the bathrooms were not segregated.  Also, her colleagues bullied her and were disgusted by her. Mary Jackson was a human computer who truly wanted to become an engineer. However, she was not allowed to become an engineer because of her gender and race. In fact, she had to go to court in order to be allowed into a high school night class she needed to become an engineer. And their unofficial acting-supervisor Dorothy Vaughan was not given the full position of supervisor despite the great need for its position. Yet, she persevered and ended up being more than a supervisor by the end of the movie. She taught herself computer science and completed the set up of the first IBM computers single-handedly. A great lesson from this movie as a minority is that I can achieve anything I want as long as I persevere.

Four year old me wanted to be an astronaut. I dreamed of going to space after reading Mae Carol Jemison’s biography. Considering that she was the first African American woman to travel to space, I felt a connection to her being a minority myself. Even though I no longer want to be an astronaut, from this young age I developed a mindset that anything that I wanted to be and do would be possible if I put in effort in achieving my goal. This mentality was reinforced by the movie “Hidden Figures,” which showed me that there will be setbacks in my goals, but reminded me to not give up. At the end of the day, it will be my work and drive to show my reliability as a worker. Nevertheless, it is upsetting that biases have a say when hiring employees and considering their capabilities. This is why, I saw the main characters of the movie, strong and brave individuals who broke the social norms of the institution they worked in.

Hidden Figures actually was a movie that inspired me right after watching it. I was amazed by how one of the central characters i.e Katherine Johnson fought against all the sexist and gender related barriers in her society back then and still made an honorable contribution to her country by making successful calculations of orbital flight. This has actually motivated me to continue fighting for some goals I have set for this semester despite how hard it may be to achieve them.

I remember seeing snippets on social media about former president Barack Obama granting a medal of honor to former NASA pioneer Katherine Goble Johnson, and, reading further into it, I was shocked. This woman had calculated and verified the travel trajectories that first took Americans to space, and this was the first time I had heard her name before. Perhaps some of this could be owed to ignorance on my part, but there has definitely been a lack of publicity regarding the mathematician to keep the United States in the “star wars” that captivated the country. I joined other Rose Scholars to watch “Hidden Figures,” a film based on her story as well as Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughan, two other NASA engineers who made huge strides for their country during this trying time in history. Being women of color, the three faced remarkable challenges throughout their careers, dealing with the racism and sexism that dominated the United States during this period. I found myself with goosebumps throughout almost the entire film as I watched them overcome barrier after barrier. I think it is so important that people know the names of these women; Katherine Goble Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan. They served their country when they knew that they wouldn’t get “credit” for it, and that is one of the strongest acts of patriotism.

To me, the absolute most powerful scene in the movie was when Katherine finally blows up at Harrison about having to walk a half-mile to the bathroom. For one, it was really incredible to me when he just tore down the sign, abolishing bathroom segregation, with a crowbar. As I sat down to write this, though, I found myself reevaluating the surface level of positive emotion aimed at the scene. This is because if anyone deserves to tear down the sign, if anyone deserves to be crowbar levels of angry, it is the people who the sign segregated in the first place. They deserve to be absolutely furious with everything and everyone who perpetuates inequality. Harrison primarily did it because of his deadline, even if he’s incredibly liberal, incredibly non discriminatory. His goal was efficiency. He achieved his goal with flare and he did a great thing in the process, but it is very telling that the white man in charge got to do the tearing down all because Katherine, the person who actually has every right to be angry, had to defend herself for using the restroom.

When we learn about NASA and the Space Race between the US and the Soviet Union in history classes, we all hear about Apollo 11’s moon landing and John Glenn’s orbit of Earth, but what about all of the planning and preparation that went into these historic events?  Last Friday I watched Hidden Figures and was blown away by the story of three women who, despite rampant racism and sexism, helped propel Americans into space.  I’m a huge history buff, so I was really excited to see this movie, and I was not disappointed.  I have a newfound and immense respect for Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, and Dorothy Vaughan.  All three of them faced so many barriers at NASA due to their race and gender, yet all three of them were able to make significant contributions that were necessary to the success of John Glenn’s mission.  One of the arcs that really stuck with me was John Glenn’s respect and admiration for the work they did, especially Katherine Johnson.  When he first arrived at Langley, he made sure to go to the “colored” section and introduce himself to the women, even though none of the NASA administrators wanted him to.  During a meeting with Glenn and high officials in NASA and the Navy, Katherine Johnson calculated the exact landing coordinates based on certain factors, which impressed Glenn so much so that when the day of the mission came, he called Langley and asked for Johnson to personally verify the coordinates that the new IBM computer had found.  If you put in the work and persevere despite setbacks, like these strong women did, someone will take notice and give you the recognition you deserve.

I am so happy that I finally got to see Hidden Figures. It made me think about how far we have come in so many areas of social justice in the last 50 years. More specifically, the fact that I am allowed to be mediocre.

I was struck by the fact that all of the women in Hidden Figures worked 100x as hard as anyone else around them did. It took Katherine Johnson being a straight up genius to ever be allowed to be part of any of things that were open to the white men in her office. She had to constantly prove that she was above the curve to remain with everyone else. In addition, she still had to keep up with taking care of her family in a way that I don’t think was expected of most men at the time. I know that the movie probably romanticizes how hard she was working a little, but any way you look at it she was keeping up with a lot.

50 years later it is normal to see women working in engineering and the sciences. Most importantly, for the most part I don’t feel like I don’t need to be above the curve to participate in that work force. Which is important, because had I been in the position of Katherine Johnson I might have shared a passion for mathematics, but there is no way I would have been able to walk in front of a room and wow them into taking me seriously. Not every woman is a fighter in that way, and in the past that prevented a lot of women from participating in traditionally male dominated fields where they had talent. So because of the work of women like Katherine Johnson I am allowed to enter male dominated fields as, just like, a normal worker. I don’t have to fight in the same way. They have blessed me with the be ability to be mediocre, and I am eternally grateful.

I was feeling super empowered and happy when this movie ended. And then the projector switched to CNN for some reason and Trump showed up. It ruined my high. Do I still have to be a fighter? Damn.

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.