Katherine Johnson by Angelina G.

  Think about people who you admire and how they inspire you. You look at everything they’ve accomplished, pushing through all obstacles, achieving their goals. The one thing they always face is adversity, being judged for being different than everyone else. Katherine Johnson is someone who faced adversity and over came it. She faced it during her early life, after college, and during working for NASA.

  You’ll be amazed to learn, Katherine as a young child loved to count many little things. She loved to learn especially math, and geometry when she got to high school. The website, nasa.gov, states “Katherine loved to learn… Katherine went through school quickly.” I admire her for loving math, as for me I find it difficult to understand and not a subject I’d focus on for my future. But her love for math and good grades led her to finish college only at the age of eighteen. That is quite an accomplishment for an African American female in that time period of the early 1900s.

  Later on, Katherine began to teach after graduating college. Eventually she had to quit due to her husband getting sick and her having to care for her children. But once she was 34, she heard NASA was hiring African American women to solve math problems. This position was often called “computer,” as it was difficult. When Katherine applied, she got rejected. According to the website, nasa.gov, “Katherine applied for one of the jobs, but the jobs were already taken. Still, she did not give up. She applied the next year, and this year NASA hired her.” Here is an example of adversity, being classified into a group of African American women, when really we’re all humans. You already figured that Katherine was different than all the “computers,” she often asked questions and even began going to meetings only men went to and that led her to become a part of NASA. 

  Afterward, Katherine studied how to use geometry for space travel because the United States wanted to send people to the moon. She figured out paths for a spacecraft to orbit. NASA used her math for the project, and it worked; she successfully helped people get to the moon. And with that Katherine worked for NASA for 30 before she retired. According to an article famous.wiki.com,  “Katherine studied how to use geometry for space travel. She figured out the paths for the spacecraft to orbit (go around) Earth and to land on the Moon. NASA used Katherine's math.” Katherine accomplished so much in so little time, while facing adversity. I truly admire her. 

  It only remains for me to say, how wonderful of a woman Katherine was. She faced adversity and overcame it with no bother. She finished school early and even went ahead with her job at NASA. She left a legacy of female and African American success in the field of math and science.