Page:Women of distinction.djvu/87

Rh years' course in three, she graduated in the class of 1877, delivering the valedictory address and receiving the Norman medal for scholarship. She had the honor to be the first colored graduate of the above mentioned school, and here, as in the other schools which she attended, gained the love and admiration of her teachers by her demeanor and devotion to her studies. Her instructor in science considered her his brightest pupil, and especially commended her for her work in chemistry, a study in which she was particularly interested (although, if it were not paradoxical, it might be said that she was particularly interested in each study), and by doing additional laboratory work at odd hours under the guidance of her instructors became quite an efficient and practical chemist.

On graduating from the High School she was urged to take a university course. All of her own purely personal desires and inclinations led her that way, but from the beginning it had been her purpose to fit herself for teaching, and, if possible, to be not an artisan, but an artist in the profession; therefore, after reflecting calmly upon the matter, taking the advice of Colonel Higginson and other staunch friends, she decided to take a full course in the Rhode Island State Normal School. She was already well known in the capacity of an earnest student to the principal. Professor James C. Greenough, and found him and his able corps of teachers very willing to assist her to gain what she needed in the line of preparation for her professional career. In 1879, the only colored scholar in a large class, she graduated with honor