Hillary Clinton was born as Hillary Rodham in October 26, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated Maine South High School in 1965 and went on to attend Wellesley College, where she majored in Political Science, and graduated in 1969. Her next educational step was to attend Yale Law School, where she received a Juris Doctor of Law degree in 1973.
During the time of her early life and education, it cannot be ignored that she was an activist and had political ambitions from the earliest age. She was a Brownie and Girl Scout, was on the student council at Maine East High School and was honored by the National Honor Society. She spent her teen years both helping to expose voter fraud in the election of President Richard Nixon and volunteered for the campaign effort of Barry Goldwater in the 1964 Presidential election.
At Wellesley College she served as president of the Wellesley Young Republicans organization and then in her first bout of changing from Republican to Democrat, subsequently volunteering in the campaign of Democrat Eugene McCarthy for Presidential nomination. Along with her leadership in many protests and canvasing efforts, she was elected President of the Wellesley College Government Association. She interned at the House Republican Conference, and wound up her college years by deliver the commencement address for Wellesley College.
At Yale Law School she served on the Board of Editors for the Yale Review of Law and Social Action, and later worked at the Yale Child Study Center. She also worked as a research assistant, performed legal duties in cases of child abuse at Yale-New Haven Hospital, volunteered at New Haven Legal Services, and worked at Marian Wright Edelman’s Washington Research Project. Her work in the field of children’s health during this time earned her publication in the 1973 edition of the Harvard Educational Review.
Her post-grad work continued her record of activism for political and social causes, first as staff attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then as a consultant to the Carnegie Council on Children. She then served as a member of the impeachment inquiry staff which advised the House Committee on the Judiciary during the scandal at the end of Richard Nixon’s Presidency.
Shortly afterwards, she made the fateful decision to suppress her own ambitions in favor of getting married to another person with an active career in law and politics, in the process taking on the last name of Clinton and moving to Arkansas in 1974. However, she still remained active in society and politics, and maintained a law career. She co-founded the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, was appointed to the board of directors of the Legal Services Corporation and served in that capacity for four years, and through her husband’s election became First Lady of Arkansas in 1979. She was to continue in this capacity for 12 years, with a brief 2-year hiatus.
Despite her decision to become a mother, she continued to pursue an active career of political, social, legal, and even corporate work. During both her position of First Lady of Arkansas and later as First Lady of the United States during her husband’s eight years as President, her numerous achievements included chairing the American Bar Association’s Commission on Professional Women, serving on the boards of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Legal Services, chairing the Children’s Defense Fund, holding positions on the corporate board of directors for the corporations TCBY, Wal-Mart, and Lafarge.
Her career at times has been said to overshadow that of her husband. While her husband endured storms of controversy but overall persevered in his eight years as President with some substantial accomplishments of his own, Hillary Clinton chaired the Task Force on National Health Care Reform, was instrumental in the formation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program of 1997, helped create the Office on Violence Against Women, created the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and did a staggering amount of lobbying for health care, childhood, and family issues.
Hillary Clinton’s name has become synonymous with hard-left social activism, as well as being a firebrand advocate for families and children. Not the least of reasons for this is her New York Times bestseller, “It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us”, published in 1996. She currently serves as the Senator for New York since 2000, a career which so far has been too brief to distinguish. Her activities as First Lady have earned her a place of respect next to Eleanor Roosevelt in history.
For her Presidential campaign, which she announced in January of 2007, she is looking forward to a tough bout in breaking the “glass ceiling” typically symptomatic of female professionals. However, she can count on a strong support base of women, minorities, and Democrats. Amongst the more liberal Democrats, she is sometimes even referred to as “the Clinton we should have had”.