Iowa State’s Multicultural Liaison Officers (MLOs), with collaboration from the Program for Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, will sponsor a night out to the movies Friday night to see “Hidden Figures” at the Cinemark Movies 12 theatre in Ames.

“We had a sign-up [for the event],” said Carmen Flagge, Multicultural Liaison Officer for the College of Human Sciences. “We sent emails to our students to let them know it was available. [The sign-up sheet] was full within a day.”

Based on a true story, “Hidden Figures” is a biographical film about three African-American women at NASA who helped calculate flight trajectories for Project Mercury and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the moon.

“I saw the trailer earlier this fall, so I just sent an email out to some of our MLOs, WISE and some of the other offices on campus we collaborate with and said ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have an inspiring night out with our women on campus?’, Flagge said. “We were able to secure some funding from the office of diversity and inclusion. With each of our different areas chipping in, we were able to cover the cost one of the theatre areas and get every student popcorn and a soda.”

Flagge said the event invitation was exclusive to women of color from all majors and women with STEM majors. Flagge and her team rented a theatre with about 175 seats for the event. She expects every seat to be filled.

“It’s important for women to be able to see themselves, especially in positions related to science and technology, engineering and math,” Flagge said. “[Women] are underrepresented in all of these areas, and it’s not due to a lack of capability.”

Flagge has been working at Iowa State for 17 years. She’s worked in the offices of admissions and multicultural affairs during her time at Iowa State.  

“Women [in STEM majors] are often one of a few in their classes,” Flagg said. “They face discrimination not only from their peers, but also some faculty. We just want to encourage them and give them the opportunity to continue to think about and remind themselves that they’re capable of doing this kind of work.”

Dr. Consuelo “Liz” Mendez-Shannon, Diversity and Inclusion Project Director in Hispanic/Latinx Affairs, shared her enthusiasm for the event.

“[The movie] helps shine a light on history that’s not told,” Mendez- Shannon said. “As we start to become more active about our intersectional identities, we begin to learn about our rich history and how we have arrived here.”

The movie will start at 8 p.m. Flagge hopes to continue collaboration with WISE and other campus programs to create more events like tonight’s in the future.