This past Thursday, the Rose Scholars attended a screening of the academy award winning movie Hidden Figures at Cornell Cinema. Personally, when I heard that there was an event to watch this movie and attend a discussion session afterward, I did not hesitate to sign myself up. For various reasons, I was not able to watch this movie in theaters and getting to watch it at school, even on the pseudo bench at the very back of the theater next to another person, made the entire experience worthwhile.

I understood the gist of the movie, about the influence of black women in NASA and its impact on the advancements in exploring space. However, what I had no clue about were the lengths to which these women went to get the recognition they deserved and lay the ground for future generations of minority women. The movie was set in a segregated atmosphere, where the separation between whites and colored people remained a very evident part of society. The acting was phenomenal, to say the least, with one of the main protagonists Katherine Johnson – played by Taraji P. Henson – bringing me to tears in by expressing just how hard it was to be a single mother of three children, be more intelligent than the men she worked with and still be ostracized for her gender and race, and have to struggle with the way the world viewed her. I have never felt more empowered as a Latina woman to hold my head up high, to all the trials and discrimination that will come my way, and simply face it head on to the best of my abilities.

At the end of the screening, there was a discussion about the movie and the influence that Cornell’s math and computer science departments have had on innovations with NASA. It was crazy to learn that without Cornell math department, chances are that the first mission launch to space would either not have been possible or not have occurred when it had. Additionally, the growth of women in the field of computer science has allowed for more opportunities for women in the STEM fields to find careers in mostly male occupied professions. I hope Hollywood continues making films such as this one in the future; one’s that are based on true stories meant to motivate and wake up the youth of today to take advantage of all the privileges we have.