Instead of a regular school day, every St. Teresa’s Academy student and faculty member attended a private screening of the Oscar nominated movie “Hidden Figures” Jan. 25. Students met their advisors in uniform at 9:15 a.m. at the Ward Parkway AMC theaters. Three to five advisories sat in one of eight theaters together, depending on the size of the theater. The movie ended at nearly 11:40a.m. and school was dismissed for the day for students. Teachers went back to STA to discuss the movie, and students and advisors will discuss it during advisory Thursday.

Attendance was mandatory because of the themes of women in STEM fields, female empowerment and the importance of diversity and acceptance, according to STA development employee Paula Holmquist. In recent years, STA has made a push to encourage students to enter STEM fields, which are still primarily male-dominated fields.

“Hidden Figures” showcases the lives of three African-American women working at NASA in the 1960s. They proved that through hard work and determination, they could do anything they set their minds to. They changed many of the norms at NASA by proving they were capable of working in, or leading, the engineering department, the computer programing department and the department that calculated the route for the mission to space. They also broke down barriers outside of NASA when one of the women, Mary Jackson, attended an all-white school in order to train to become an engineer.

41 Action News was also present at the end of the movie to interview STA students and report on the all-school showing.