Nov 22, 2016 · When West Virginia decided to quietly integrate its graduate schools in 1939, West Virginia State’s president, Dr. John W. Davis, selected her and two men to be the first black students offered spots at the state’s flagship school, West Virginia University.

Dec 21, 2024 · In 1939 Johnson was selected to be one of the first three African American students to enroll in a graduate program at West Virginia University. Later she was a member of a group of NASA employees called "computers," made up of African American women who excelled in mathematics and problem-solving.

Becoming the first African-American woman to be accepted into WVU's graduate program, Johnson withdrew from classes after discovering she was pregnant, settling into motherhood and her career as a teacher over the next decade.

West Virginia State graduate Katherine Johnson has received many accolades for her pioneering work at NASA, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Johnson’s remarkable story is also told in the book and major motion picture “Hidden Figures,” released nationwide in …

Apr 25, 2018 · Katherine Johnson graduated from high school at age 14 and from college at 18. After teaching for seven years in elementary and high schools in West Virginia and Virginia, she went to work in 1953 as a pool mathematician or “computer” for the Langley Research Center (LRC), part of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) in ...

Sep 2, 2020 · Katherine Johnson, graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in mathematics and French from West Virginia State College (now University). She did graduate work at WVU, where she was among the first Black students to attend.

Her education continued when she enrolled in graduate school at West Virginia University and became the first African-American woman to desegregate the program. Beginning in the 1950’s, Johnson applied her mathematical skills and became a “computer” for the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics.

Feb 21, 2017 · But the pair found inspiration from someone whose story only recently came to light: Katherine Johnson. Thanks to the book and feature film, “Hidden Figures,” the world has become aware of Johnson’s story. A native of West Virginia, Johnson was the first woman to desegregate the graduate school at West Virginia University. After teaching ...

Sep 24, 2024 · Katherine Johnson, a WV native and “Hidden Figure”, was the first black female grad student at WVU in 1939 and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. She calculated spacecraft trajectories for NASA in the 1960’s, helping to get the first astronauts into, and back from, space.

Sep 21, 2023 · Johnson was born in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va. and completed high school at 14. She graduated summa cum laude from West Virginia State College (now University) with degrees in mathematics and French. She pursued graduate studies at WVU, where she was one of the first black graduate students.