Students at Coretta Scott King Young Women’s Leadership Academy were the center of attention and recipients of several surprises when Good Morning America featured the school for its first-ever “GMA” Yearbook. GMA Anchor Robin Roberts, who was named “Most Likely to Succeed” in high school, was on hand to make the surprise announcement that CSKYWLA was selected as the school that is “Most Likely to Succeed.”
View a video summary of the day below:
If a live broadcast by GMA and a visit from Robin Roberts wasn’t enough, the girls could not contain their excitement when they learned more surprises were coming. That highlight of the morning was a visit from Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o. Nyong’o delivered an inspiring pep talk and launched a new partnership with Donors Choose while at the school. As a part of the announcement, she presented the school a check for $25,000 to be used for supplies, classroom projects and more.
“I feel like I’m looking into the faces of the future, and it gives me deep hope to see how open, how alive and how positive that future could be,” Nyong’o said in her remarks. “When I look into this room I see problem solvers. I see creative thinkers. I see activists,” she said. “But most importantly I see women who are learning how to learn, and learners change the world.”
GMA gained interest in the school when CSKYWLA became the first all-female school to become STEM Certified (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Certified) by AdvancED.
“Your superpower is learning,” said Nyong’o to a room full of wide-eyed girls.
The girls consider themselves STEMinists and are learning to create solutions to many of the world’s problems. Some of the STEM projects the girls participate in include: raising, nurturing quails and distributing the eggs into the community; growing fruits and vegetables in their school garden; and caring for a bee hive and selling the honey in the community. These STEMinists are already solving problems and creating a more sustainable community.
The school’s motto is, “Every girl has a dream with her name on it.” There were many significant visitors on hand to help celebrate the girls and this amazing school: Dr. Meria Carstarphen, superintendent; Dr. Bernice King, CEO of The King Center and daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King; Eshe’ Collins, Vice-Chair of the Atlanta Board of Education; and a number of parents and other community partners.
Bernice King told the students how proud her mom would be of them.
“My mother would be super proud today because she said ‘women are the soul of the nation and to be saved you must become a soul’ and these young ladies are the soul of our nation,” King said.
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