When Dr. Mae C. Jemison was a little girl she didn?t dream of becoming an astronaut, she simply dreamed of ?going into space?.

?When I was growing up in the 1960s I would always assume that by now we would be on Mars or exploring Jupiter,? Dr. Jemison said. ?And that I would travel there to do my scientific work, just like now people travel to other countries to do their scientific work.?

Unfortunately, the American space programme couldn?t quite keep up with Dr. Jemison?s childhood expectations, so she had to go into space the old fashion way, as an astronaut.

In 1992 she made history by becoming the first black woman astronaut.

She was the science mission specialist on the STS-47 Spacelab J flight, a joint mission between America and Japan.

Dr. Jemison was on the Island this week as the keynote speaker at the 2006 Careers Fair at the Bermuda College. reporter Jessie Moniz spoke with Dr. Jemison yesterday shortly before she went off to give a public address at the Bermuda Institute.

If ever there was a person who meets the definition of ?well-rounded? it is Dr. Jemison.

She has been an astronaut, medical doctor, humanitarian, a dancer, scientist, writer, innovator, business woman, public speaker, educator, and she can pluck and clean a grouse without batting an eye.

The last sounds irrelevant to the story of an astronaut?s career, but even this has played a minor role in her success.

?My father, Charlie Jemison, was a man?s man,? she said. ?He did hunting and fishing and construction work. He and his friends really liked that I was very assertive and outgoing, so I could hang out with them.

?If I ever ran into any boys who thought I shouldn?t do things, it didn?t matter to me, because my dad and his friends thought it was cool.?

Her father and his friends often took her along on hunting and fishing expeditions, probably never imagining that the field skills she learned would one day play a part in a space career.

?I went on survival training when I was an astronaut,? she said. ?We went with the airforce and they decided that they were going to pick on someone and it was going to be me ? which was dumb.

?Someone killed a grouse, and they gave me the bird and asked me to clean it. I am holding the bird and I plucked all the feathers out, and they said ?well you have to clean all the insides out too?.

?I held out my hand and the guts were in my hand. It was already done. I am a physician. You can?t make me squeamish with an animal. Also, having hunted with my dad, I was used to it. It completely levelled the playing field. It was one of those really funny moments.?

Dr. Jemison was born in 1956 in Decatur, Alabama, the youngest of three. It was a time when very few young women of any race were encouraged to take up any type career ? let alone medicine or space.

Her parents, however, were way ahead of their time and encouraged her every step of the way.

The family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when she was young and her mother, Dorothy, taught in the school system.

?I did something incredible; I chose my parents well,? Dr. Jemison said. ?My parents had this tendency not to say what we couldn?t do, but to really support us in our choices, even if they weren?t necessarily the choices that they would have made.?

Dr. Jemison said that children are already wired to be motivated and to dream, but too often parents discourage their children.

?Sometimes, what we do is de-motivate them,? she said. ?We beat the stuff out of them. We tell them what they can?t do. We take our fears and transfer it on to the kids.?

One of Dr. Jemison?s many projects is to encourage science literacy amongst children.

She defined science literacy as not necessarily being able to understand a complicated scientific paper, but the ability to read and understand an article in the newspaper about health, or new scientific developments, and apply it to life.

?One thing that disturbs me is when kids bring in a math grade and then the parent says, ?that?s alright, I wasn?t too good in math myself?,? she said.

?We expect them to do well in reading and writing and social sciences, but as soon as it gets to math and physical sciences very often people say, ?that?s okay, I understand?.

?That is nonsense because kids can do well in it, we just have to provide the foundation.?

Dr. Jemison founded the Dorothy Jemison Foundation For Excellence, and out of this came a summer camp programme called The Earth We Share (TEWS).

The camp uses ?experiential? learning and teaching ? learning through exploration rather than rote memorisation.

Students come from all over the world to take part in the camp, and one Bermudian girl has participated.

?With The Earth We Share, we assume that by giving students a problem to solve then they will learn a lot more about everything than if we told them to go off and memorise a bunch of facts,? said Dr. Jemison. ?We give them problems like ?Design the World?s Perfect House? or ?How Many People Can the World Hold??.?

Groups of ten to 12 students go off to research, dream, talk and come up with their ideas.

There is no right or wrong answer, but in the process of researching, they learn about everything from religion and social services to building materials and alternative sources of energy.

To become part of the programme, students can apply online in late December or early January.They don?t necessarily need to be budding scientists, although good grades help.

Applicants must also come up with several recommendations and write several essays.

In addition to science, Dr. Jemison also has a passion for dance.

?Being a professional dancer was one of those careers I considered,? she said. ?If you are going to be a professional dancer you have to start in your late teens.

?I was there, but I had to make a decision whether to go to New York City and be a professional dancer or to go to medical school. I couldn?t do both.

?I chose to go to medical school. I could still dance, but I just couldn?t do it professionally.?

While some people might have felt slightly lost after reaching a lifetime goal like space flight while in their 30s, she said this was not the case for her.

?When you?re an astronaut you do a lot of different jobs,? she said. ?You don?t just fly in space. You are taking care and being involved in human space flight.

?I was involved in research. I was the principal investigator for one of the experiments. You have a lot of different tasks. I had to make the decision as to whether I wanted to continue as an astronaut.

?There were other things I wanted to do. I had to figure out which things I was going to hold on to and which things I was going to let go.?

In 1993, Dr. Jemison founded the Jemison Group Inc. to look at ways to integrate science and technology with daily life.

Out of the Jemison Group came the BioSentient Corporation, a medical technology company that creates and markets mobile equipment worn to monitor the body?s vital signs and train people to respond well to stress.

Another issue that Dr. Jemison has worked on is sustainable development and technology.

For several years she was a professor of Environmental Studies at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

There she directed the Jemison Institute for Advancing Technology in Developing Countries.

?This was about looking at things like how to use technology that is available or design it to meet the best needs of a community,? she said. ?Sustainable Development really is about ? ?how do we improve life now, wherever we are, in such ways as it does not interfere with the ability of future generations to continue life??.?

Dr. Jemison?s advice to young Bermudians coming up in the world was ?figure out who you want to be?.

?You have to figure out what you want to do,? she said. ?Figure out who you intend to be in life. What kind of life do you want for yourself? e are responsible for what goes on. I don?t care if you are from a small country or a large country.

?What happens in this world is going to affect you as well. You have to figure out which piece you are going to contribute. To hell with dreams. One of my favourite quotes is by Paul Valery ? ?The best way to make a dream come true is to wake up?.?

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