Our latest unit in humanities is all about craziness, hence our drivining question “why does it take a crazy person to change the world?” For the first part of our new unit we each picked someone from Apple’s Think different campaign to do a short pechakucha presentation on them.

For my presentation I chose to do Amelia Earhart. I genuinely believe that she changed the world. I also strongly admire her passion for women’s rights and how she was able to break stereotypes.

Amelia Earhart was born July 24th, 1897 in Atchison Kansas.  Her father worked as a railway lawyer and her mother was from an affluent family. As a child, Amelia displayed an adventurous and independent nature, climbing trees and hunting rats with her sister. 

After her grandparents deaths in 1914 her family was struggling financially, her father had become an alcoholic. Due to their money struggles they were often forced to move. Even through her troubled childhood she continued to aspire to a future career.

Amelia had been keeping a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about successful women in predominantly

male oriented fields, such as advertising management and mechanical engineering. In 1920, after 2 failed attempts
in collages she decided to reunite with her parents in California.

 

There her father took her to an airfield and she experienced her first flight. One that would forever change her. After the 10 minute flight she was determined to learn to fly. By 1921 she had bought her first plane, and 2 years later she earned her piloting licence.

Amelia was determined to pursue flying and set records. In April of 1928, she became the first woman to fly as a passenger across the Atlantic. Shortly after in August of that year, she became the first woman to fly solo across the North American continent and back.

Then in May of 1932, she became the first women to fly nonstop across the Atlantic. But her greatest attempt was in 1937, when she planned to circumnavigate the globe with her passenger and navigator, Fred Noonan.

On June 1st, they set out on their 47,000 km trip. By July 2nd they had made it 35,000 km. Their next stop was set for Howland Island, but they never made it. Amelia had radioed that they were running out of fuel and it is believed that the plane went down 160km from the island. 

In addition to her piloting feats, Earhart was known for encouraging women to reject social constructive norms, and pursue various opportunities including aviation.

Throughout her career, she promoted flying in her local newspaper.  As she rose to fame, Earhart laid out plans for an organization devoted to female flyers. Later, this group became known as the 99’s. She also designed a Clothing line “for the woman who lives actively”.

My thesis for this project was: Through her own determination and strong will, she advanced women’s rights and the future of flight. Without Amelia Earhart’s accomplishments, women’s rights and aviation would not be what we know them as today. 

Throughout this project and the reasearch involved I now have a better understanding of how “crazy” people are the ones who change the world. The Think different campaign was all about individuals who were considered “crazy” because of what they did and how they though different. Hence the campaign name, Think different.

Overall I really enjoyed this project and the learning involved. Feel free to comment any questions.

Morgan