March is the month we celebrate women. With this in mind, we want to continue our celebration with the life of Mae Jemison, who was born in Decatur, Alabama, on Oct. 17, 1956. She is the youngest of three children of Charlie and Dorothy Jemison. Her father was a maintenance supervisor for a charity organization and her mother was an elementary school teacher. Her family moved to Chicago, Illinois, for more job opportunities.
At an early age she enjoyed nature and human physiology. When Jemison told her kindergarten teacher, she wanted to be a scientist, the teacher thought Jemison wanted to be a nurse versus a scientist. Jemison has been quoted saying that “sometime people want to tell you how to act or to be a certain way. Sometimes people want to limit you because of their own imagination.”
Jemison also had a keen interest in dance. She studied ballet at the age of 8 or 9 and entered high school at the age of 12 as an all-round student. She was an excellent student, cheerleader and a member of the Modern Dance Club. She learned several different styles of dance which included African, Japanese, ballet, jazz and modern dance and seriously considered becoming a professional dancer.
She attended Stanford University at the age of 16. While there she served as the head of the Black Student Union. She continued to pursue her love of dance and choreographed a musical and dance production named Out of the Shadows.
After college, Jemison attended Cornell Medical School and had an opportunity while there to travel to Cuba to study and to Thailand where she worked at a Cambodian refugee camp. She also worked for Flying Doctors stationed in East Africa and continued her love of dance by enrolling in dance classes at Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. After completing her M.D. degree in 1981, she worked as a general practitioner for Ross-Loos Medical Group.
Jemison worked in the Peace Corp and upon her return to the United States started a private practice. She also enrolled in engineering courses at the graduate level because she was inspired by the flights of Sally Ride and Guion Bluford in 1983. In October 1985, Jemison applied to the astronaut program and was chosen for one of the 15 slots out of a pool of about 2,000 applicants.
She would later become the first African American woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor in 1992 which orbited the earth eight days on September 12-20, 1992. Jemison resigned from NASA in March of 1993 and began a company with Homer Hickman who had trained her for her flight.
Jemison was the featured speaker for the 100th anniversary of the founding of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated (AKA), established in the U.S. in 1908. She is an honorary member of AKA and carried the sorority’s banner on her shuttle flight.
She has received countless awards and honors and sits on numerous boards. In 1996 her likeness was portrayed on the Azeri postage stamp.
She continues her love dance and is a force of nature for people everywhere by Keeping her Pulse on Safety.
