Local artist, baker and author Jasmine Cho visited Amy Kim and Marilyn Martens' kindergarten class at Shady Side Academy Junior School on Friday, Aug. 30. Cho shared the book she wrote and illustrated, Role Models Who Look Like Me: Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Made History, and brought cookies that she baked for the children to decorate with colored icing. As part of the presentation, she helped students make their own cookie self-portraits.

Cho has done a popular Ted Talk on Asian American culture and baking therapy. She is a Korean-American baker based in Pittsburgh who creates intricate, hand-drawn cookie portraits of Asian-American figures as a way to increase representation and raise awareness of Asian-American history and identity.

Read the NPR article about Cho and her visit to SSA.