#35: The First Female Med School Graduate
Elizabeth Blackwell was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. This was no easy feat, considering that most colleges didn’t admit female students during most of the 19th century. Elizabeth desired to become a doctor after a dying friend mentioned how much better her treatment would have been if she had a female physician. Elizabeth applied to countless schools, and only one accepted her.
The thing was, Geneva College sent her an acceptance letter as a practical joke. Elizabeth got the last laugh because she was dead set on earning her medical degree. Although she faced the derision of her male classmates, had to sit by herself in lectures, and was often left out of labs, she graduated and went on to practice medicine. She even opened her own medical practice with her sister, Emily, who pursued a medical degree.