Mae Jemison: An Extraordinary Woman (Part I)

In 1961, a teacher in a Chicago classroom asked her students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Five-year old Mae Jemison told her teacher that she wanted to be a scientist. The teacher thought Mae was confused. In 1961, girls, and especially African American girls, were not encouraged to study science. Science was for men. Even at that, African American boys were not encouraged to study science, either. When the teacher suggested that Mae must meant that she wanted to be a nurse, Mae told her, "No, I mean a scientist." (Jemison, p viii)

Mae was bright, determined, and curious. Her parents expected their children to "understand the world around them, and always be open to learning." (NASAquest) Mae took that message to heart.

While still in elementary school, she studied astronomy on her own. She wanted to understand the planets, the stars, and the universe. She often thought about what it would be like to work in an observatory such as the Palomar Observatory in California, which at that time had the world's largest telescope. She intended to travel in space some day. Her study of astronomy led her to a great interest in chemistry. Every chance she had, she was off to the library and returned with an armful of books about astronomy and chemistry.

Perhaps you think that Mae kept her head buried in books. Not so. Her interests were many and varied. While science was her number one passion, she also loved to study dance and the Russian language. She would later become fluent in Japanese and Swahili, as well. During high school, she served on the student council.

At the age of sixteen, she entered Stanford University on a full scholarship to study chemical engineering. It had been eleven years since her kindergarten teacher had tried to convince her that science wasn't a good career choice for a girl, and not much had changed. Mae would often find herself in classes with very few women and very few African Americans. Usually, she was the only African American woman.

She did indeed become a scientist! She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and her Bachelor of Arts degree in African and African American Studies. She decided to go to medical school and earned a Doctorate in Medicine. She put her skills as a doctor and an engineer to good use. She joined the Peace Corps for two years because she wanted to help people. She worked in Sierra Leone and Liberia in West Africa. Upon returning, she went back to school to earn her graduate degree in engineering.

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