Maria S. Mitchell

This is a portrait of Maria Mitchell in 1874 (ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/people_mitchell.html)

Mitchell lived from August 1st, 1818 to June 28, 1889. She lived in Massachusetts in a small town called Nantucket. Mitchell was willing to help everyone no matter what the challenge was, big or small. She was important because she was the first woman astronomer in the United States. She also discovered a comet and she was the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Mitchell meets my definition of a hero in many ways. I am mainly going to focus on the things that she discovered but also how and why she tried to accomplish them. The first thing that Mitchell did was on October 1st, 1847. She was outside one night and she was looking through her telescope and she saw something shoot through the sky and she then realized and discovered that it was a comet. The quote that expresses this accomplishment is: "Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe." -Maria Mitchell. The reason I consider that moment a heroic act is because she went and tried to explore things and did something as a woman that no one else thought could be possible. She also was encouraged by her father to do something that no one thought could be possible and she inspired a lot of other women that anyone can do anything if you put your mind to it. When she discovered the comet she won a gold medal from the King of Denmark. During this experience Mitchell encouraged a lot of women to try to do anything and to never give up; because, she did this she was unique and she changed something in someone else's life. She also discovered something that no one thought could be possible. This impacted people's lives because, now we know more about comets than we did before and she also told people that whatever you would like to do put your mind to it and you will succeed and women did begin to follow her and look up to her as a hero just as I do.

This is one of the observatories Mitchell went to. (www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/American_Aca...)

Another accomplishment that Mitchell made was becoming the first woman to attend the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The quote that fits this accomplishment best is: “Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow. She was given the choice to attend there or to go to another academy; she ended up going there in the year of 1848. She then became president for the American Association for the advancement in Science. During her time at the school she found some of the things she had to learn difficult and others to be easy. This also meets my definition because, Mitchell wasn't given a lot of support from her family and she had to do things on her own and she still continued to attend that school no matter how hard or challenging it was. This helped a lot of people because she went to that school and she helped a lot of people understand things. She also made it so that other people wanted to go there because she discovered something so big that people could have thought that they could do the same thing she could. The last thing that made a big change in her life was that she encouraged people to do what they can and to never give up, even if no one was supporting you.

This is the telescope that Mitchell used at the A (de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/dewiki/8457)

There are many reasons for why people born and unborn could benefit from the experiences from a Maria Mitchell. The one thing that she did that started all of the research and information was discovering the comet. If she didn't discover the comet...“The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us.”- Maria Mitchell... If we didn't have Mitchell some of the women in the world would not be able to do things that they want to do. What I mean by this is that if Mitchell wasn't accepted into the academy and if she wasn't the first woman to be accepted then probably half of the women that wanted to do things wouldn't be accepted. The reason for this was because women were not accepted as much as men were and since that was the way things were, women thought that whatever they wanted to do they weren't going to be able to because of the fact that some of the schools were men only and in order to try to get in they needed to try.

There are a lot of problems today in the 21st century but I think that one main problem is kids dropping out of school. If Mitchell were here she would have encouraged people to never give up. The reason she would have done this was because her father pushed her to do everything she could in school and to continue with science to reach her goals to become the first woman astronomer. She wouldn't have been able to be the first woman to attend the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and discover a comet if she dropped out of school and just gave up like a lot of people do today. I think that everyone should try to reach their goals no matter who inspires you because, if you put your mind to it, and you really are trying for what you want or believe in you will get there. Something that everyone should take away from this is that anyone can be your hero no matter what race, sex, or religion.