Hope Jahren and Her Mother

Michael Dang
Post #7

Hope Jahren dedicates her book to her mother because of their relationship and the similarities that connect them. Hope got the opportunity to accomplish what her mother couldn’t. As a teen, her mother was one of the top students in Mower country. She posted excellent grades, and was awarded an honorable mention in the ninth annual nationwide Westinghouse Science Talent Search. This got her a one-year junior membership to the Minnesota Academy of Science, but that wasn’t enough to fund her college tuition. Hope’s mother did accept the scholarship and attend the University of Minnesota to study chemistry, but her dream was eventually cut short. She had long class hours and she didn’t have enough time to work and earn money to pay the tuition. In addition, college at that time was mainly for men. Only rich, privileged males or males who could find stable, well paying jobs were only able to afford college. Women were more of a side thought when it came to college. So instead, her mother decided to just raise and maintain a family. She raised four wonderful children, but she also planned to go back to college once Jahren was at least in pre-school. However, her mother didn’t study what she wanted to originally study. Her course options were limited so instead of chemistry, her mother choose to study English.

When Hope went to college, her situation was almost the same as her mother’s. She obtained a scholarship to the University of Minnesota, but it didn’t cover her entire tuition. At one point, she had to work about ten different jobs to help finance her tuition. But she pushed through all the adversity and in the end, it was worth it. She became a passionate and renowned scientist. In a sense, Hope’s journey of going off to college and earning a degree pertaining to biogeochemistry is a continuation of her mother’s dream. Hope always admired her mother’s strong and independent persona, and she strived to be like her in many ways. She wanted to break barriers for women who weren’t thought of as scientist.