Valley girl pushes for permanent change at her school, see banners that will be up year-round

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Maren Young is a fourth grade student whose favorite subject is math.

"I think it can be challenging, but then pretty easy at the same time," Maren said.

She's been at Yokomi Elementary since pre-school.

She's also a Girl Scout and about a year ago, she started working toward earning a badge for her "Global Action Project."

"I needed to do a community service project with an everlasting effect, so we looked at the school to see if we could do something there," Maren said.

In the halls she's walked countless times, there are banners of impactful men and women in STEM.

But Maren noticed an imbalance.

"We realized there were only three female banners throughout the school and there were lots of duplicates of men," Maren said.

She decided she'd try to even it out and went to her Principal, Steve Zoller, with a list of women who could replace the duplicates.

"At first, it started with a little handwritten on a little tiny sheet of paper 'Here's some ideas.' And so I asked her from there, 'All right, well, tell me more about them.'" Zoller said.

Maren did some research and returned with more information about each woman.

She and her mom worked on creating the banners and then sent out emails asking for funding to get them printed.

"You could just see the pride of it from the get go. She was so excited to do this. Not just because it was a Girl Scouts thing, but because she wanted to give that thing for other girls to look up to," Zoller said.

The superintendent's office heard about the project and agreed to fully fund it.

Just in time for Women's History Month, 10 new female-focused banners went up in the hallways.

"I think this project is a really good way for girls to see what they're capable of and what they can accomplish so that some day, they can do great things just like this," Maren said.

With Maren being an aspiring astronaut, Principal Zoller thinks there's likely going to be at least one more poster to add someday.

"I'm always telling her I'm just excited to come back on the day when we put her poster up," Zoller said. "It's not if, but when. I know it's going to happen."

The posters will remain up year-round.

As for Maren's next project, she and another girl scout are brainstorming ideas on how to help students make friends on the playground.

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