On Saturday October 20, my friend Allison and I joined the Women of Math and Science club on a trip to the Columbus library for an outreach event. The plan was to split into groups and read a book about volcanoes to children, afterwards all the groups would come together and we would demonstrate a volcano erupting with a model volcano. We arrived at the library around half an hour early to set up and prepare. As 10am rolled around we started to get nervous because no kids had shown up and the program was scheduled to start at that time. At around 10:15 one little girl came in crying with her mom. We quickly realized that this child had disabilities. We decided to start the program because even if we only had one child, that was enough.
Sitting in a circle passing a children’s book from college student to college student, reading to one little girl made me realize the significance of the impact we can make on just one child. This girl came in crying and left excited about volcanoes, fascinated with science, and most importantly with a smile on her face. Our team easily could have cancelled the event due to lack of turnout but instead all eight of us college girls invested our time into one little girl to make her feel special. Who knows, maybe someday that little girl will be a leader in a science or math field.