Learning from Hidden Figures

We are in the second week of summer break in the Westra household, but the last project of the school year is still on my mind. My sixth-grade son created a map of NASA highlighting four major events from the book "Hidden Figures." One image featured the IBM computer that Dorothy Vaughan, a mathematician, programmer, and supervisor at NASA, worked on in the early days of computing.

Throughout her career, Ms. Vaughan faced racism, sexism, and resistance to new technology. Rather than let those challenges push her out, she proved her value by becoming indispensable. She learned FORTRAN and used it as a tool, rather than letting the tool replace her. She then taught her colleagues to do the same, turning her team into a group of experts.

With so many current layoffs attributed to AI replacing human roles, it would be easy to give in to fear and walk away from Silver Scribe Research. Working with my son reminded me of the power of learning from remarkable role models like Dorothy Vaughan and that technology is just a tool. How we choose to use it makes all the difference.