Mae Jemison

Dr. Mae Jemison was born on October 17th, 1956 in Alabama. As a child, she spent a lot of time reading about science, especially about astronomy (the study of objects in space). Mae worked very hard in school. After she graduated from high school, she wanted to be an engineer, and she got a scholarship to go to Stanford University.Then, she went to medical school at Cornell University. When she was in medical school, she had a chance to study in places like Cuba and Kenya. She even helped refugees (people who had to leave their homes because of danger) from Cambodia. After graduating from medical school, she helped many people in Africa, was a teacher, and did medical research. When she returned to the United States, she decided she wanted to have a different job.

She soon applied to become an astronaut with NASA. She was one of 15 people chosen out of 2,000, and she became the first African-American female astronaut. During her time in space, Dr. Jemison was in charge of doing science experiments with the other astronauts. She won many awards and even had a school named after her! Dr. Jemison spoke many times about the great work in science that African-Americans and women can do when given the same opportunities as others.