Trip Elementary School fourth grader Penelope Bender is learning about influential African-American historical figures in her social studies class, but she said Wednesday she was excited to learn about an influential female inventor she’d never heard of.

The Trip Elementary School gymnasium was packed full of its fourth grade class on Wednesday afternoon. Michael Carson, who wrote a book called “African-American Inventions That Changed The World,” told students about Madam C.J. Walker, who created a hair-loss solution in the 1890s and marketed it to become a self-made millionaire.