Mae Jemison is a great inspiration to little kids and young women, in my opinion. She was a chemical engineer, scientist, physician, entrepreneur, medical doctor, and an astronaut. She was the first African American woman to become a astronaut. She has received many awards

Mae Jemison was born on October 17, 1969 in Decatur, Alabama. She was the youngest child. Her father’s name is Charlie Jemison, and her mother’s name is Dorothy Jemison. Her family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when she was three years old, so that she can have a better education. As a young girl, growing up in Chicago, she always assumed she would get into space. At a very early age, she developed interests in anthropology, archaeology, and astronomy. Throughout her early years she spent many years in her school library reading about all subjects related to science, especially astronomy. As a little girl she was inspired by Neil Armstrong and in space travel. Also ever since she was a little girl, she was fascinated by pus, because once when a splinter infected her thumb, a lot of pus came out, so she told her mother and she taught Jemison about pus. As a child growing up, she learned to make connections to the world by studying nature. She has many interests. She likes traveling, graphic arts, photography, sewing, skiing, collecting African arts, weight training, and learning different kinds of language(Russian, Swahili, and Japanese).

While she was growing up, she loved science. She also loved dance. At the age of 9, she began to dance. She took all kinds of dancing lessons. She took African dancing, ballet, modern jazz, and even Japanese dancing. In high school, she auditioned for the leading role of "Maria" in the West Side Story. She didn’t get the part, but her dancing skills did get her into the line up as a background dancer. Later during her senior year in college, she was trying to decide whether she should go to New York to go to medical school or to become a professional dancer. Her mother told her " You can always dance if you are a doctor, but you can’t be a doctor if you are a dancer."

She graduated from Chicago Morgan Park High School, and in 1973 and entered Stanford University in 1977, receiving a B.S. in chemical engineering. She obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree in 198, from Cornell Medical College. During her years at Cornell Medical College, she took lessons in modern dance at the Alvis Ailey School. She later built a dance studio in her home and has choreographed several shows of modern jazz, and African dance. When she went to medical school, she traveled to Cuba, Kenya, and Thailand, to provide medical care to people who were living there. She was the only eleventh person in the 52-year history of the Harvey Mudd College, to be given a honorary degree.

She spent several years as a Peace Corps physician in West Africa, opened a private practice, in Los Angeles. She served in the Peace from January 1983 to June 1985. She served in Sierra Leone, and Liberia. She provided medical care. She also had contact with and worked with the Center of Disease Control.

After her return to the US in 1985, after serving in Peace Corps, she applied for admission to NASA’s astronaut training program. The selection process was delayed after the explosion of the space shuttle "Challenger" in January 1986, but when she reapplied a year later, she was one of the 15 candidates chosen from a field of about 2000. So, she became the first African American woman ever admitted into the astronaut training program. After more than a year of training, she became a astronaut with the titles of Science Mission Specialist. On September 12, 1992, with six other astronauts, she flew into space aboard the "Endeavour" on mission STS-47. On that day she became the first American to go into space. While she was up in space she studied the effects of zero gravity on people and animals. During her eight days in space, she led weightlessness , and motion sickness experiments on the crew and on herself before returning to Earth on September 20.She has received many awards. She received the 1988 Essence Science and Technology Award, which was named Gamma Sigma Gamma Woman of the Year in 1990, she received the Ebony Black Achievement Award in 1992, and received a Montgomery Fellowship from Dartmouth College in 1993. Also in 1992, a public school, in Detroit Michigan was named after her- The Mae C. Jemison Academy. She’s also committee member of the American Express Geography Competition and a board member of the Center for the Prevention of Childhood Malnutrition. After leaving the astronaut corps on March 1993, she established the Jemison Group, which is a company that seeks to research, develop, and market advanced technologies. She was also a professor at Dartmouth College. She also created "The Earth We Share," a science camp for 12 to 16 year olds, which can help their skills. She’s remained as a popular public speaker. Also in 2001 her autobiography "Find Where the Wind Goes: Moments from My Life," was published.