“Whoa! Look at this all these achievers, the women in the lead, as they say,” marveled Scorch at the bright orange painted 3D-statues.
On the occasion of International Women’s Day (March 8), a new exhibit in Washington, D.C., put up statues of women excelling in science, technology, engineering, and math (together known as STEM) to celebrate their achievements and efforts.
“The name of the exhibition is #IfThenSheCan – The Exhibit” and it has 120 3D-printed statues of women on the National Mall. It is a beautiful gesture to honor these women. The idea behind this exhibit is to inspire young girls to take up science,” said Verum who was carrying a colorful sling bag. A couple of books on inspirational women were peeping out from the bag.
Orak gently tucked one of the books in as it was about to fall off and said, “Right now, the need to inspire women by giving the examples of inspiring women is the need of the hour for many like us.”
“Well said!” clapped Scorch.
“Oh, look!” said Orak pointing at the printed information card next to a statue, “She is Jessica Esquivel, one of only 150 Black women with a doctorate in physics in the U.S., and this one is Karina Popovich, a college student who produced more than 82,000 pieces of 3D-printed PPE for healthcare workers during the pandemic. This is phenomenal work, can you believe it!”
The other Mysticals nodded as they clapped harder for these women.
Many reporters from different news channels were interviewing the organizers. The Gifted Four were present too and saw Myria Perez, a fossil preparer at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, giving a byte to a popular news channel, “there is still a stigma that women shouldn’t be in STEM. We are making a culture change. A culture shift here to show that women do belong in STEM.”
“Brilliant!” remarked Orak, who was clearly in awe of all the women statues honored there and their excellence in their respective fields.
“The exhibit will be on view at multiple Smithsonian museums until March 27,” said a little girl who was passing-by.
“Oh! Did you guys hear that? We should get the Bruha here… maybe she’ll be inspired to do some good,” chuckled Felix. The Mysticals laughed out loud and headed back to the dorm room.