Hello, my name is Rachel Lousie Carson. I was born on a farm in Springdale,Pennsylvania on May 27, 1907. My mother, Maria McLean Carson was a dedicatedteacher and throughout my childhood she encouraged my interests in nature and inwriting. She also encouraged me to publish my first story A Battle in the Clouds in the St.Nicholas magazine while I was in fourth grade.After graduating from Parnassus High School, I enrolled into the PennsylvaniaCollege for Women. I majored in English and continued to write but I also had to taketwo semesters of science, which changed my life. In my junior year I changed my major tozoology, even though science was not considered an appropriate avenue for women. After graduating college in 1928 I had earned a full one year scholarship to JohnsHopkins University in Baltimore. This scholarship did not relieve me or my family of ourfinancial burdens, so I worked throughout graduate school in the genetics departmentassisting Dr. Raymond Pearl and Dr. H.S. Jennings and I worked as an assistant teacher inthe zoology department at the University of Maryland. In 1932 I received my masters inmarine zoology. I continued working part-time as a teacher after graduating to helpsupport my family through the early years of the Depression. In 1935 my father had aheart attack and passed away leaving me to provide for my mother. In 1936, my sisterMarion passed away at the age of forty leaving behind two young daughters, and mymother encouraged me to take them in. That same year I took the civil serviceexamination necessary for promotion to full-time junior aquatic biologist. I scored higherthan all the other candidates ( who were all male) and became the first female biologistever hired by the Bureau of Fisheries whom I was employed by for sixteen years as awriter.My article entitled “Undersea” which had been published in the Atlantic Monthly,won praise from scientists, naturalists, and literary cri...
