![]() "Katherine Johnson - New World Encyclopedia". When there was a space she was “meant” to stay out of she became relentless and eventually was granted the same privileges as her white male counterparts. Of course, there were instances where she was discriminated against but she says that she didn’t let those occurrences affect or demotivate her. ![]() Despite this, Johnson recalls that she didn’t feel much discrimination. For most of her career, she was overlooked and overshadowed until President Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her position of “computer” was not that much higher ranked than a secretary or janitor even though she spent her days checking the work of her superiors- engineers. Hardships or obstacles this scientist may have overcame:Īs a woman of color in a field that was very white male-dominated, Johnson often found herself being undervalued. Johnson’s handwritten calculations are also said to have been more widely trusted than those that were performed by computers, in fact, John Glenn refused to launch into space without having Johnson double-check the calculations. In 2015 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and the next year she was celebrated in the book “Hidden Figures” by Margot Lee Shetterly. Her calculations were also “crucial to the success of the Apollo lunar program”. Even today her work “remains at the core of human space travel”. She also enjoyed encouraging young students to pursue their dreams, especially STEM-based ones.Īs a NASA employee, Johnson figured out the paths for spacecrafts to orbit Earth and a bit later her calculations were used to help send astronauts to the Moon and back. Outside of science, she is said to have enjoyed “traveling, playing card games, and spending time with her family and friends”. She worked for NASA for more than 30 years before retiring in 1986. Eventually, she began attending meetings- at the time she was the only woman in these rooms- and a bit later she became a team member who worked on different projects for NASA. She was constantly asking questions and wanted to learn as much as she could about NACA (now known as NASA) and her position. She stood out from the other computers due to her curiosity. In June of 1953, Johnson was offered a position at NACA as a “computer”. ![]() She had 3 daughters before returning to her work. At the end of the first semester, however, she became pregnant and choose to leave the university to begin a family with her husband. Canada, a case that declared that any public higher education institution that offered enrollment to white students must also offer enrollment to black students. She soon left her teaching job to pursue a graduate degree when she was selected as one of three African Americans to integrate West Virginia's graduate school after the Missouri ex rel. After graduating she became a teacher at a black public school in Marion Virginia. By the age of 14, she had graduated high school and by 18 she had a degree in mathematics and French from West Virginia State (an HBCU).ĭuring her time in college, she took every math course that was offered and even has additional math courses added just for her by one of her mentors, W.W. The town that she lived in did not offer schooling for children of color past the eighth grade but Johnson showed such a high aptitude for math that her parents decided to enroll her in a high school in Institue, West Virginia at the age of 10. Her mom was a teacher and her dad was a lumberman. Katherine Johnson was born in 1918 in West Virginia and was the youngest of 4 children. RELATED PRINCETON COURSES/PDF TO INCLUDE IN THE COURSE:īackground, early life, and outside interests: West Virginia State College- B.S in Mathematics and French.Living at the Intersection Symposium 2018 SubmenuįIELD OF STUDY: Mathematics Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.Living at the Intersection Symposium 2020 Submenu. ![]()
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