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Hillary Rodham Clinton grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois and attended Wellesley College. Graduating with honors, Senator Clinton became the college’s first student commencement speaker. Her speech, which focused on the country’s turmoil because of an unpopular war, political assassinations and rioting in the cities, drew a standing ovation and prompted an article in Life magazine.In 1969, Senator Clinton entered Yale Law School, where she served on the Board of Editors of Yale Law Review and Social Action, interned with children’s advocate Marian Wright Edelman, and met Bill Clinton. After graduation, Senator Clinton advised the Children’s Defense Fund in Cambridge and joined the impeachment inquiry staff advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives. She was one of three women on a 43-lawyer staff. She then "followed her heart to Arkansas," where her husband began his political career. After marrying in 1975, the Clintons joined the faculty of the University of Arkansas Law School. There Senator Clinton taught criminal law, ran a legal services clinic, and did prison projects and advocacy work. She joined the Rose Law Firm as one of its first women associates in 1976. In 1978, President Carter appointed her to the board of the Legal Services Corporation and Bill Clinton became governor of Arkansas. Their daughter, Chelsea, was born in 1980. Senator Clinton served as Arkansas’ first working First Lady for 12 years, balancing family, law and public service. In 1987, she became the first chair of the American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession. As chair, she submitted a report with recommendations that urged ABA leadership and members to "work to overcome the barriers, including practices, attitudes and discriminatory treatment that prevent the full integration and participation of women in all aspects of the profession." The recommendations became ABA policy. As the nation’s First Lady, Senator Clinton continued to balance public service with private life. Her active role began in 1993 when the President asked her to chair the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. She continued to be a leading advocate for expanding health insurance coverage, ensuring children are properly immunized, and raising public awareness on health issues. In 1995, Senator Clinton was named Honorary Chairperson of the American delegation to the United Nations international conference on women in Beijing, China. During her extensive travels around the globe, Senator Clinton often met with women who ran clinics and small businesses delivering her message that without schooling, decent healthcare and the empowerment of women, societies will not advance. She wrote a weekly newspaper column titled "Talking It Over," which focused on her experiences as First Lady and her observations of women, children, and families she met around the world. Her 1996 book, It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us, was a best seller, and she received a Grammy Award for her recording of it. On November 7, 2000, she was elected United States Senator from New York. Senator Clinton is the first First Lady elected to the United States Senate and the first woman elected statewide in New York. The Senator has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Claude Pepper Award of the National Association for Home Care; the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award of the Progressive National Baptist Convention; the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Medal; the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal; and the Albert Shanker Award of the New York State United Teachers. Senator Clinton's latest book, Living History, released in June of 2003 was an immediate best seller with more than 1.5 million copies sold in the United States, and another 1.5 million copies sold abroad. |