Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Bessie Coleman...history is full of notable African American women but when the First Things First Foundation of Lakeview was looking for a role model for the girls in its mentoring program they picked a living legend - one not much older than them.

At 28-years-old, Vernice "FlyGirl" Armour graduated flight school in 2001 not only first in her class of 12, but also number one among the last 200 graduates. She became America's first African American female combat pilot and completed two tours in Iraq. 

One-by-one the girls of the mentoring program shared details like this about Armour's life as they presented their research reports during the Feb. 11 meeting at the Lakeview Public Library, where the focus was the importance of Black History Month.

"It's inspiring," said one of the girls, Yami Uter, when asked what she thought about Armour's accomplishments. Her sentiments were echoed by her peers, as well as the adults in attendance. 

After the discussion, the girls were then presented with two special gifts from Armour. Each received a personally autographed copy of Armour's book, Zero to Breakthrough, and then watched a video message that Armour created specifically for them. (Click on the video to the top right to hear what she had to say.)

The foundation's co-founder, Dr. Michele Reed, one of the recipients of Malverne's 2012 Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award, had met Armour when she spoke at an event for the Long Island Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, and she happily agreed to sign the books and record a message for the girls.

"Please read through the book whenever you get a chance," Reed told the mentees. "It's something that you might not appreciate right now but further down the line you definitely will." 

Doris Hicks, a mentor in the program and a teacher in the Malverne school district, also told the girls, "The sky is the limit for you. You have so many things available to you. The opportunities are there you just have to take them." 

Hicks also spent some time during the meeting stressing the importance of studying black history to the girls, even recommending some great reads and showing off a unique artifact - a reversible doll that young slave girls had played with. (The black doll could be converted to one with a white face, which the girls were required to use when playing with the slave owners' children.)

"I have it because it reminds me where our people have come from," said Hicks, who then read a short story about African American inventors titled "What If There Were No Black People?"

"Let's just keep on reading about our history," she told the girls. "It makes us stronger and it makes us know where we've been. We don't want to go backwards. We just want to keep on contributing to this great country we live in and the best way to do that is to read and learn."

She added, "If your school isn't teaching black studies then it's up to you to do it yourself."

Check out photos from the event in the gallery above.