A North Texas Teacher is now part of an elite group of women changing the world through STEM. She's this week's KRLD Difference Maker.
It started with a study - wanting to see how many statues are there of women in 12 largest U.S cities.
"Rosie Rios was the 43rd Treasurer of the United States and so in 2106 she commissioned a study to identify, are there any statues of women?" said Jenn Makins, Director of STEM Education at Parish Episcopal School in Dallas. "The study found that there were fewer than 6 statues of women."
But somewhere along the way Lyda Hill Philanthropies and their CEO Nicole Small and they were in the process of creating the IF/THEN cohort of women - which is an initiative designed to activate a culture shift among young girls to open their eyes to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) careers.
"They decided a very cool thing to do with that group of women would be to make life-size statues to instantaneously change that narrative," Jenn said.
Hola! Here is this week's Diff maker. Audio and pic are attached. :)
The STEM innovators were selected through a rigorous process that identified them as leaders in their fields with a commitment to inspire the next generation and were chosen by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Lyda Hill Philanthropies.
One hundred and twenty women were chosen. Jenn is one of only two teachers chosen to be IF/THEN ambassadors.
You might have seen striking orange statues at NorthPark Mall - and now the group and their life-size orange statues will be featured at the Smithsonian for Women's History Month. The Smithsonian's take on Women's History Month is called Women's Futures Month, which they are calling a forward looking celebration of the power of women of STEM to shape our world.
But Jenn says the striking lifesize statue of her - is not about her.
"The statue i representative of my kids and their hard work and their resiliency and the work we do here at school on a daily basis to encourage to know that they can make an impact - a positive impact out in the world," Jenn said. "So that's really exciting for me."
We're proud to call Jenn Makins and the If/Then cohort - this weeks KRLD Difference Makers.
If you know someone making a difference in the community, send us an email at differencemaker@krld.com.
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