Breaking Stereotypes

Breaking+Stereotypes

Daniela Gomez
April 11, 2019

and Simone Kingcade ’22

Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Miami, Florida, broke archaic gender roles by installing a MakerSpace.

Carrollton has a long history of empowering women and breaking stereotypes. While in the 1970s it was popular nationwide for boys to take shop classes and girls to take home economics,  Leslie Jones ‘73 said, “We had a winter break called ‘intersession.’ I took ‘charm school’ from Jennie Weiss, car mechanics…learned how to change a tire and oil…took calligraphy from Sister Piper. There were many other things offered.”

said, “When I was here at Carrollton, I never got the chance to build things or to make things and it was not so great.” The curriculum was primarily focused on a traditional liberal arts education. Mrs. Perez continues, “When I got to college I was with a lot of young men, and they had a lot more experience building and making things than I did.” That’s not the case today.

In January 2017, Carrollton opened a MakerSpace where anyone in the community can make anything from simple fabric designs to carving shapes and faces into chocolates.  It is equipped with a CNC router, a glowforge laser cutter, a vacuum former, welding machines, 3D printers, soldering equipment, woodworking equipment, and many other tools. Today, Carrollton students gain experience and preparation for higher-level engineering with the addition of the MakerSpace. Isabella Delionado ‘22, a frequent user of the MakerSpace said, “Being at the MakerSpace has helped me gain more engineering skills. I am more comfortable using hand tools and I’ve been exposed to all of these new materials and techniques.” She continues, “This has helped me feel equal to my male counterparts and the MakerSpace has essentially helped me catch up to my male counterparts so that when I do enter the engineering force I will be able to compete with them and rise to the top.”