Student
When we hear the name Hillary Clinton we think “presidential candidate”, “First lady”, “Secretary of State”, but those are all true. What we don’t hear is how she became Secretary of State, First lady and Presidential candidate. She is a strong woman, who has battled through so many challenges throughout her life to have gotten her to where and who she is today.
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton was born on October 24th, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. Her father had a successful small business and her mother was a homemaker. Hillary has two younger brothers. Hillary was raised in a conservative household. She was very interested in politics at a young age. Growing up, Hillary was very studious, she joined her student council, school newspaper and was selected for the National Honour society in high school. She was very active, played numerous sports and had many aspirations. She was a typical girl, maybe just a little more studious than most girls. |
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Early on in her youth/teenage years she had experienced sexism. She was told she could not do something simply for the reason that she was a “girl”. At the age 13 she was interested in becoming an astronaut and sent a letter to NASA asking what she has to do to become an astronaut. NASA responded back to her and advised her that no women were being accepted into the program. This lead to her running for class president in her senior year of high school. She lost against two fellow male students who told her after “you are really stupid if you think a girl can be elected president”. Hilary did not let this derogatory comment bring her down but rather allowed her to rise above them and pursue what she loves.
After Hillary graduated high school she enrolled into Wellesley College in Massachusetts for her undergraduate degree. At Wellesley, Hillary was still determined to be a positive impact on the school body and was elected president of the Wellesley College Government Association. She organized many important events which changed/ bettered the school. She organized a two-day strike at Wellesley after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and worked countlessly with the black students to make Wellesley different from the other liberal arts colleges. Her attitude in rough times truly made a difference for others. While at Wellesley Hillary became very involved in politics and was a strong supporter of the Republican Party. That evidently changed when she was an intern at the house of Republican Conference where she helped with Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s late entry campaign. She was upset, by the way another Republican nominee portrayed Rockefeller's campaign and left the Republican party. Hillary graduated Wellesley with a B.A (Bachelor of Arts) in political science. For her graduation, students at Wellesley requested that the school allow a student to speak at commencement. The students requested that Hillary speak. Hillary became the first student to speak at commencement in Wellesley’s history. She gave an incredible, inspiring and empowering speech to the graduating class, remarking that women can do anything. Many of the students at Wellesley truly believed someday that Hillary might become the first female president. After graduating Wellesley, Hillary went to Yale Law School and earned her Juris Doctor degree. While at Yale, she worked with children’s studies, volunteered with children and also at local hospitals. She was devoted to children and their best interest as well as providing free legal advice to people less fortunate. She spent much of her time trying to get the less fortunates’ voices heard. Yale was an important start to her professional career where she was recruited into politics to work on campaigns for others and met her husband Bill Clinton. |