Mae Jemison
By: Morgan Briggs
Early Life
Mae Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama on October 17, 1956. Three years later she moved to Chicago. Her parents worked as a maintenance supervisor and a schoolteacher. Her uncle was the one who introduced her to science. He helped her develope interest in anthropology, archaelogy, extinct speicies, evolution, and astronomy. When Mae Jemison was younger, she would often gaze up into the stars, and imagined she could visit with the people who lived on them. She would do this on the South Side of Chicago, where she lived. She attended school at Morgan Park High School. She graduated and moved on to Stanford University on a National Achievement scholarship. On January 1986, she attempted to join the space program, but it was aborted due to the explosion of the space shuttle the "Challenger." NASA suspended all applications. That didn't stop her though. In October 1986, she reapplied and was one of 15 accepted out of 2,000 applicants. She was also the only African American woman to travel to space at the time, and the first. In space she conducted experiments in life science and material science, and she worked on a bone experiment. She also studied the loss of bone tissue of peope, found out that gravity affects the development, and figured out ways to fertilize frog eggs in space.
Achievements
She created her own company called the Jemison's Company. The Jemison Group, which was advanced technology and seeks to premote an inerternational interest in math and science. She found out that gravity affects the development, studied loss of bone tissue of people, did the first experiment that fertilized frog eggs in space, took an 8 day fllight on spacecraft: Endevour. She was also the first African American woman to travel to space.
Goals
Mae Jemison'sĀ goals were to travel to space. When she was younger she also dreamed of going to space and be in the NASA program. She did everything she couls to achieve her dream. She worked hard, got good grades, and never gave up. Before she sent in an application to NASA to become an astonomer, she worked as a physician, a scientist, chemical engineer, and an educator. She invites people to come and listen to her about her story and how to acheive your dreams. She inspired many people, and because of her, children and some adults have achieved their dreams of what they hoped they will and would become someday.
Quotes
"It was my responsibility and my right to live up to my potential and to go on my own journey. I had to learn never to limit myself because of other people's imagination." "I believe empowerment is the ability to determine one's own destiny and circumstances. You do that by educating yourself and improving your selfesteem... Empowerment is the ability to make a change for yourself."