![]() She applied a second time the following year and made it in. Johnson was interested, but the first time she applied for the job there were no positions left for her. Without the high-powered computers we have at our disposal today, the agency hired a team of women “ computers” to do the complex math for low wages. In the mid-1950s, NASA (then known as the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, or NACA) was looking into sending people to space for the first time-a task that required crunching a lot of numbers. Katherine Johnson was rejected by NASA the first time she applied. (They eventually had three daughters.) 3. After completing her first session, she discovered that she was pregnant and opted to withdraw from school in order to raise a family with her husband, James Goble. In 1939, the newly-married Johnson-then known as Katherine Goble-enrolled as a graduate student at West Virginia University after being selected as one of the first three black students-and the first black woman-to attend the state’s newly-integrated graduate school program. Johnson had plans to continue her education even further. Katherine Johnson was one of the first black students integrated into West Virginia's graduate schools. At the age of 18, Johnson graduated summa cum laude with degrees in both mathematics and French. Schiefflin Claytor, even designed a course on the geometry of space especially for her. One of her mentors, famed black mathematician Dr. Born Katherine Coleman in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia on August 26, 1918, she enrolled directly into the second grade when she reached school age, and by age 10 she was ready for high school.Īs an undergrad at West Virginia State College, she took every math class that was available to her. Johnson’s gift for numbers allowed her to accelerate through her education. Katherine Johnson graduated from college at age 18. Her accomplishments have since been recognized, leading her to be regarded as one of the pioneers of the space age. Before she helped send the first astronauts to the moon, won the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and became the subject of an award-winning film, Katherine Johnson-who passed away on Februat the age of 101-was an anonymous “ female computer” doing thankless but vital work at NASA.
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