Mae Jemison
MAE
JEMISON
FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE IN
SPACE.
EARLY LIFE
• Mae Carol Jemison was born October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama.
• At the age of three, her and her family moved to Chicago.
• For high school, Jemison attended Morgan Park. Here is where she realized she wanted a career in biomedical engineering.
• She attended Stanford University on a National Achievement Scholarship.
• As she had been in high school, Jemison was very involved in extracurricular activities at Stanford, including dance and theater productions, and served as head of the Black Student Union.
• She received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering 1977.
Upon graduation, she entered Cornell University Medical College and, during her years there, found time to expand her horizons by studying in
Cuba and Kenya and working at a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand.
SPACE?
• After she obtained her M.D. in 1981, Jemison interned at
Los Angeles County/University of Southern California
Medical Center and later worked as a general practitioner.
For the next two and a half years, she was the area Peace
Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia where she also taught and did medical research.
• Following her return to the United States in 1985, Jemison made a career change and decided to follow a dream she had nurtured for a long time. In October of that year, she applied for admission to NASA's astronaut training program. The Challenger disaster of January 1986 delayed the selection process, but when she reapplied a year later, she was one of the 15 candidates chosen from a field of about 2,000.
JEMISON
FIRST AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE IN
SPACE.
EARLY LIFE
• Mae Carol Jemison was born October 17, 1956 in Decatur, Alabama.
• At the age of three, her and her family moved to Chicago.
• For high school, Jemison attended Morgan Park. Here is where she realized she wanted a career in biomedical engineering.
• She attended Stanford University on a National Achievement Scholarship.
• As she had been in high school, Jemison was very involved in extracurricular activities at Stanford, including dance and theater productions, and served as head of the Black Student Union.
• She received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering 1977.
Upon graduation, she entered Cornell University Medical College and, during her years there, found time to expand her horizons by studying in
Cuba and Kenya and working at a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand.
SPACE?
• After she obtained her M.D. in 1981, Jemison interned at
Los Angeles County/University of Southern California
Medical Center and later worked as a general practitioner.
For the next two and a half years, she was the area Peace
Corps medical officer for Sierra Leone and Liberia where she also taught and did medical research.
• Following her return to the United States in 1985, Jemison made a career change and decided to follow a dream she had nurtured for a long time. In October of that year, she applied for admission to NASA's astronaut training program. The Challenger disaster of January 1986 delayed the selection process, but when she reapplied a year later, she was one of the 15 candidates chosen from a field of about 2,000.