Good Morning Nativity Families,
We hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend and found ways to stay warm. Tomorrow, Wednesday, February 17, we enter the season of Lent. Our fifth-eighth grade students will attend Mass virtually and will receive ashes. We will hold a prayer service and distribute ashes to our younger students. We are reminded that Lent is the time given by the Church to help us remember that our primary purpose on earth is to serve and glorify God. The ashes of Lent remind us that we are here preparing for everlasting life. We are reminded that all our actions should direct us to heaven. We pray that during Lent we find the courage to change our hearts and to do our very best to fulfill our Lenten promises.
This week at school, we are launching our initiative To See, Acknowledge and Honor the Superheroes who inspire us by their contributions to making our world a better place. We will spend time the rest of this school year focusing on celebrating black heroes in the content areas, including saints, scientists, artists, leaders, authors, teachers, etc.
Today is our first Spotlight on a Super Hero. This week, we are honoring NASA scientist, Katherine Johnson. Katherine was one of the 1st African American women to work as a scientist at NASA. She calculated trajectories, launch windows, and emergency landing paths for space flights including the flights of the 1st American in space, the 1st American in orbit, and the 1st flight to the moon.
Katherine loved math from a young age and counted everything she saw. She graduated from high school at the age of 14 and then college at 18. Katherine became a teacher and then was hired at NASA. During her more than 30 years at NASA, Katherine had to face both race and gender barriers but was determined to follow her dreams.
Katherine was a hidden hero while working at NASA but was later awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the NASA Group Achievement Award, and the Congressional Gold Medal for her achievements in Science and for her fight for Civil Rights.
Katherine believed that “you learn if you want to learn, so you’ve got to want to learn.” When she was 14 and told that she was moving to Virginia during a tough time in history for black women and men, she bravely responded, “Well, tell them I’m coming.”
Today we thank Katherine Johnson for being a hero through her fight for racial and gender equality in Science and for paving the way for others to follow their dreams.
