Paving the way for women
Elizabeth Blackwell attended Geneva College in Geneva, New York on January 23, 1849. The only reason she originally was accepted into the school was because when a professor posed the question of her admittance to his students they all jokingly said yes.
Acceptance and excelling
Despite the fact that her enrollment was a joke and she was the only woman at her school Elizabeth Blackwell dedicated herself to her studies and gained respect from her classmates. While other women looked down on her for entering the medical field Elizabeth found encouragement from her Anatomy professor James Webster who congratulated her and discussed the possibility of her becoming a surgeon.
Against all odds
During the summer of her first year at school she returned to Philadelphia to work at a charity hospital for the poor called Blockley Almshouse. There she worked with women who had sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and despite resistance from her male colleagues her hard work was commended by the hospital’s chief physician. When she returned to school she took advantage of her hands on experience and excelled in her classes. She graduated at the top of her class with the approval of her classmates and reflected on the ceremony writing, “the audience applauded, but their presence was little to me. I was filled with…high resolves for the future.”
Elizabeth Blackwell attended Geneva College in Geneva, New York on January 23, 1849. The only reason she originally was accepted into the school was because when a professor posed the question of her admittance to his students they all jokingly said yes.
Acceptance and excelling
Despite the fact that her enrollment was a joke and she was the only woman at her school Elizabeth Blackwell dedicated herself to her studies and gained respect from her classmates. While other women looked down on her for entering the medical field Elizabeth found encouragement from her Anatomy professor James Webster who congratulated her and discussed the possibility of her becoming a surgeon.
Against all odds
During the summer of her first year at school she returned to Philadelphia to work at a charity hospital for the poor called Blockley Almshouse. There she worked with women who had sexually transmitted diseases such as syphilis and despite resistance from her male colleagues her hard work was commended by the hospital’s chief physician. When she returned to school she took advantage of her hands on experience and excelled in her classes. She graduated at the top of her class with the approval of her classmates and reflected on the ceremony writing, “the audience applauded, but their presence was little to me. I was filled with…high resolves for the future.”