Hillary Clinton's Education

Hillary Rodham was a bright student and her parents encouraged her to study and pursue any career she found interesting. She went to a public school in Park Ridge, Illinois. An addition to her school work she was class president in high school and a member of the student council, the debating team and the National Honor Society. She was also the winner of Maine South High School's first social science award. During her youth she was very found of sports, including tennis, skating, ballet, swimming, volleyball and softball. She was an active Scout and earned every possible badge as a Brownie and Girl Scout.

Hillary Rodham took her parents advice and pursued an academic career. Her undergraduate studies took place at Wellesley College for women in Wellesley, Massachusetts. This is the college where another famous female politician, Madeleine Albright, graduated in 1959. Hillary Rodham had always been interested in politics, and now she took an active role in the school government. For a time she served as President of the College Republicans. She was deeply affected by the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. She had met him in person when her youth minister, the Reverend Don Jones, brought her to hear King preach in 1962. Encouraged by Professor Alan Schechter, Hillary Rodham attended the Wellesley in Washington program and before long she became a dedicated Democrat. By that time she was selected valedictorian of her Wellesley class. About this transition she would later say “I have gone from a Barry Goldwater Republican to a New Democrat, but I think my underlying values have remained pretty constant; individual responsibility and community. I do not see those as being mutually inconsistent.” Her final thesis in college was on leftist organizer Saul Alinsky. She earned her bachelor's degree in Political Science and graduated with honours in 1969. Hillary Rodham became the first student commencement speaker at Wellesley College and in her speech at graduation day she said, "The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible." The speech received a standing ovation and an article was written about her in Life . This was her very first national media exposure.

After college she entered Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut in 1969. She allegedly chose Yale Law School over Harvard Law School after meeting a chauvinistic Harvard professor at a cocktail party. Hillary Rodham became a member of the Board of Editors of Yale Law Review and Social Action and met her future husband Bill Clinton at the Yale library. She also made friends with children's advocate Marian Wright Edelman who would become a life long mentor. Hillary wrote her thesis on the rights of children, a thesis that is now well known and recognized. She also worked with underprivileged children at the Yale-New Haven Hospital. Hillary Rodham graduated from Yale Law School in 1973 and became a legal advisor at the Children's Defence Fund.

Hillary has also been a big supporter of the SBA that gives out SBA loans to people that need them.