Black Women in Science
SHE JUST MADE HISTORY AS THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO EARN A BIOPHYSICAL CHEMISTRY DEGREE IN VIRGINIA
by BOTWC Staff via https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/
She’s the first at the school and in the state!
A James Madison University (JMU) student is making history as the first Black woman to earn a biophysical chemistry degree in Virginia, WHSV news reports.
Jay-Anne Johnson didn’t initially know what she planned to major in when she went to college. She enjoyed several subjects, particularly in the sciences, coming across biophysical chemistry as a major when she was still in high school.
“I couldn’t really decide, ‘Do I want to do physics? Do I want to do chemistry? Do I want to do biology?’ So, I was like, ‘Let me see if biophysical chemistry exists,’ so I kind of Googled it one night,” Johnson recalled.
That’s when she decided to attend JMU, the only school in the state of Virginia offering the degree. Johnson had no idea that she would soon make history, becoming the first Black woman to graduate from JMU with a degree in the subject. She follows in the footsteps of…