Dr. Mae Jemison
"Don't
be limited by others' limited imaginations"
- Dr. Mae Jemison
"One of the first sights I saw when I first went into orbit was the city of Chicago" After spending four years on the shuttle ground crew, Dr. Jemison's childhood dream of space travel came true when she launched in 1992.
She graduated from the Chicago Public Schools at the age of 16 and attended Stanford University on an academic scholarship. Dr. Jemison earned Bachelor Degrees in Chemical Engineering and African-American Studies. She received her MD from Cornell University.
Dr. Jemison served for two years as a medical officer in the Peace Corps. She returned to the United States and worked as a general practitioner before joining NASA. She is fluent in Japanese, Russian, and Swahili.