Dr. Jones

When I first started at RCA in Mr. Clark’s math class, it was hard. He would have us do a
problem in our heads instead of writing it out. We had a time limit to work out problems so I had
to get use to it that. I did not really understand why I was doing certain things I just knew we
were in this situation, fifth grade. So when it came to figuring out a problem I would just figure it
out while he was either writing it on the board or talking. So when he would ask a person to
work out the problem, I would be ready to respond with the correct answer.
When I start Mrs. Wallace‘s class, she had a lot of word problems and I felt like some of the
information was not needed but it was good practice. she would teach us the strategies that
would only work in certain situations and I would always think,”Why would you teach us to use
something that does not work all the time?” I like the games that she had like Attack. These
were games that she made for us. It was a math game that we played in teams. They were
really fun and a good way to practice math. However, when it came time to her take tests and
her quizzes, it was sometimes hard for me to remember all the strategies and how to use them
and for what situations they work in and which strategies work all the time and the ones that did
not.
In Dr. Jones class, I feel like I am doing better because she teaches us why things happen and
she gives us tricks that work all the time in any situation and instead of having to figure it out in
your head like Mr. Clark’s class. You are able to write it down and it work out with all the time
you need . When it comes to test with Dr. Jones, I would say they’re a little bit easier for me
because as long as you study and look over the strategies she gave you and how the concept
works you can get a pretty high grade on the test.
Dorthy Vaughan was born September 20, 1910 in Kansas City. Her family moved to
Morgantown, West Virginia, where she graduated from Beechurst High School in 1925 as her
class valedictorian. Vaughan received a full-tuition scholarship from West Virginia Conference of
the A.M.E. Sunday School Convention.[2] She graduated cum laude at the age of 19 with a B.A.
in mathematics in 1929 from Wilberforce University, a historically black college located in
Wilberforce, Ohio.[3] In 1932 she married Howard Vaughan. Vaughan was very devoted to
family and the church, which would play a huge factor in whether or not she would relocate to

Hampton, Virginia for employment with NACA. As a college cum laude graduate and a teacher
in Mathematics.
In December 1943 she started working for NACA’s West Area Computing unit, a group of
African American female mathematicians who were considered “human computers,” performing
complex computations and analyzing data for aerospace engineers. The West Computers, as
the women were known, provided data that were later essential to the success of the early U.S.
space program. At the time, NACA was segregrated, and black employees were forced to use
separate bathrooms and dining facilities. Despite these conditions, Vaughan was promoted to
lead the West Computers in 1949. She became NACA’s first black supervisor and one of its few
female supervisors.