Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Education is a tool of Liberation - Condoleezza Rice


Rice is the first African American woman, second African American, second woman to serve as Secretary of State. From the days of slavery, Rice's family seized education and used it as a tool of liberation.

Born on November 14, 1954 in Birmingham, Alabama, Condoleezza Rice aka Condi Rice earned her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver in 1974; her master's from the University of Notre Dame in 1975; and her Ph.D. from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver in 1981.

She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been awarded honorary doctorates from Morehouse College in 1991, the University of Alabama in 1994, the University of Notre Dame in 1995, the National Defense University in 2002, the Mississippi College School of Law in 2003, the University of Louisville and Michigan State University in 2004. Condoleeza resides in Washington, D.C.

She learned to read when most children were still struggling to walk and by the age of 3 had begun lessons in a wide range of areas—classical piano, figure skating, ballet, French.

A precocious child, both by heritage and personal ambition, Rice was in eighth grade by age 11, entered the University of Denver at 15, and went on to earn her doctorate in international studies. By age 26, she was an up-and-coming assistant professor at Stanford.

"My parents were very strategic, " Rice explained. "I was going to be so well prepared, and I was going to do all of these things that were revered in white society so well, that I would be armored somehow from racism. I would be able to confront white society on its own terms."

From the days of slavery, Rice has said, her family seized education and used it as a tool of liberation.

Source: Web.

With Love, Amma-Naana