Share with Your Children Inspiration from America’s First African American Female Astronaut Dr. Mae Jemison

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

Spend the Month of July in Space Exploration with Your Children

Starting on July 16, NASA has a series of scheduled events to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Moon landing. This is a wonderful time to introduce your children to or expand their knowledge of the history of space exploration and NASA’s plans for the future. NASA’s website has a wealth of information specifically for children.

The events commemorating the 50th anniversary range from interviews with past astronauts to discussions of the agency’s future plans. Please visit the website below to get all the information and how to participate in or just view the events.

On another section of its website, it has information about its plans for the future, which it refers to as “Moon to Mars”. Specifically, its plans include the following: “Working with U.S. companies and international partners, NASA will push the boundaries of human exploration forward to the Moon and on to Mars. NASA is working to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon within the next decade to uncover new scientific discoveries and lay the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy.” It states that the missions to the Moon and Mars are intertwined as the Moon will be an experimental area and stepping-stone for eventually traveling to Mars. There can be no doubt that the mission to Mars will be challenging, as it is a 34 million mile trip to get there.

NASA has dedicated a portion of its websites to students, whom it refers to as the “Next Generation of Explorers”. A considerable amount of information is provided in a child-friendly format. There is even a link to NASA’s Kid Club with games for children to play, from test driving a machine on Mars to a printable puzzle booklet.

This month is a unique opportunity for children to learn more about space exploration and exciting plans for the future. You might even learn a thing or two as well!

Please visit: