Children need good role models. Who are better than those persons who are living today and have made exceptional strides and achieved great accomplishments. One of those persons is Dr. Mae Jemison, the first female African American astronaut, who is also a medical doctor and an engineer.
Dr. Jemison came from humble beginnings, with her mother working as a teacher and her father employed as a maintenance supervisor. As a child, she was inspired by the Apollo space missions and the Star Trek show on television that had an African American actress who played a role as a lieutenant. From an early age, she was interested in astronomy, anthropology and archeology. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Stanford University and a medical degree from Cornell University. She is fluent in Russian, Japanese, and Swahili. She joined the Peace Corps, where she served as a doctor for two years in Africa.
She was inspired to become an astronaut after seeing Sally Ride become the first female astronaut. She applied and was accepted by NASA. After significant training, she was selected to join the crew of the space shuttle Endeavor as a mission specialist. Her team orbited the Earth 127 times in 1992.
She later retired from NASA and has been involved in many different pursuits, including serving as a professor at Cornell University.
She wrote a children’s book in 2001 titled Find Where the Wind Goes which is about her life. Parents, please consider buying it for your children.
In addition to her quote on the picture on my blog post, some of my favorite quotes from Dr. Jemison are the following:
“Greatness can be captured in one word: lifestyle. Life is God's gift to you, style is what you make of it.”
“Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live.”
“What we find is that if you have a goal that is very, very far out, and you approach it in little steps, you start to get there faster. Your mind opens up to the possibilities.”
To learn more about her, please visit :
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mae-jemison
https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_who_level2/jemison.html