Born in 1918 in the small town of White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia, Johnson was a research mathematician who, by her own admission, was simply fascinated by numbers. Fascinated by numbers and smart to boot, because when she was 10, she was a freshman in high school, a truly astonishing feat in an era when schooling for African Americans normally stopped at eighth grade for those who had that luxury . We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Former NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson is seen after President Barack Obama presented her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Her father, Joshua, was determined that his brilliant little girl would have the chance to meet her potential. He drove his family 120 miles to Institute, West Virginia, where he could continue his education through high school. Johnson's academic performance proved that her father's decision was the right one: Katherine skipped school to graduate from high school at 14, college at 18. In 1953, after years as a teacher and then as a stay-at-home mom, she began working for the NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, or NACA. The NACA had taken the unusual step of hiring women for the tedious and precise work of measuring and calculating wind tunnel test results in 1935. In an era before the electronic computers we know today, these women held the job title of "computer". " During World War II, the NACA expanded this effort to include African American women. The NACA was so pleased with the results that, unlike many organizations, it kept women on the job after the war. In 1953, the growing demands of the first space research meant that opportunities opened up for African-American computers at the Department of Guidance and Navigation at the Langley Research Center - and Katherine Johnson found the perfect place to put her extraordinary mathematical skills to use for Alan Shepard, the first American in the space Even after NASA began using electronic computers, John Glenn asked her to personally double-check the calculations made by the new electronic computers before his flight aboard Friendship 7, the mission on which he became the first American to orbit the space. Earth He continued to work at NASA until 1986, combining his mathematical talents with computer skills. His calculations proved critical to the success of the Apollo moon landing program and the initiation of the Space Shuttle program, as well as the country's first steps in space travel. Please note: this is just an example. Get an article customization now from our expert writers. Get a Custom Essay From Honorary Doctorates to NASA's 1967 Lunar Orbiter Spacecraft and Operations team award (for pioneering work in the field of navigation problems in support of the five spacecraft that orbited and mapped the moon in preparation for the Apollo program) Katherine Johnson he led a life full of honors. But on Tuesday, November 24, 2015, he will receive the nation's highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, from President Barack H. Obama. Works Cited: Abrams, M.H. (2011). Glossary of literary terms. Cengage Learning.Greenblatt, S. (2010). Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. W. W. Norton & Company.McInerney, J. (2019). Juliet's maturity and development in Romeo and Juliet. Open access journal of linguistics, literature and.