The Grand Connection: Leadership Is Connecting With Others Through a Greater Purpose

Background Information

Jemison was born in Decatur, Alabama. Her mother was an elementary school teacher and her father was a carpenter. When Jemison was three years old, the family moved to Chicago where she grew up and attended school. Early in her education, Jemison demonstrated a deep interest in the sciences and the arts and excelled in her studies. She was an honor student, a leader in the Black Student Union and participated in school sponsored theater and dance productions. Jemison pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering at Stanford University, attended Cornell University Medical School, interned and became a general practitioner at the University of Southern California Medical Center, and after serving in the Peace Corp as a medical officer for two and a half years, she decided to follow a long-held dream of becoming an astronaut. Jemison applied and was accepted to NASA’s astronaut training school in 1987 (Biography, 2020).

In 2020, Jemison described herself as a “young girl who would stare up at the stars and imagined herself going there.” When she finally realized her dream, she also realized a personal truth: “I felt my being was as much a part of the universe as any star, as any comet…this was my grand connection.” In the book, Build Unstoppable Teams: The 4 Essential Actions of High-Performance Leaders, Alden Mills (2019) expands on Jemison’s “grand connection” writing, “When you come to understand your ‘why,’ people will figure out their way. And once people do this, people will come to appreciate that they have only two limitations in life: their ability to dream and the courage to follow those dreams” (p. 97). Mills, like Jemison, realized how the powerful force of clarity can guide one to leadership, empowered by the forces of vision, purpose, vulnerability, courage, and connection.

However, it is important to recognize the limitations Mills referenced are personal limitations. There is much more to be said about the external barriers that exist in the context in which individuals strive to lead. In a 2016 address at the University of Virginia, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Excellence Through Diversity Distinguished Learning Series, Jemison reminded lecture participants of one powerful external barrier: she said, “…never limit yourself because of other’s limited imagination…” Other’s limited imagination can manifest in single incidents of stereotyping, bias, prejudice, and discrimination, it can also serve as a persistent paradigm that reinforces systems of racism and oppression. Jemison experienced both in her academic and professional journey. Yet, she managed to overcome other’s limited view of what she was capable of by believing in herself and in her dream- her why - and invoking courage at every step of her way.

Jemison’s earliest formative years occurred in the 1960’s and 1970’s. During her University of Virginia address, she described this time in the United States as a time of remarkable potential and equally significant challenges. The U.S. was making important strides in science, technology, and engineering; it was in 1969, two U.S. astronauts landed on the moon. Yet, in 1968, Jemison also recalls the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the fear she felt when her father went to work the next day. She was keenly aware of the Civil Rights Movement and the Women’s Movement that extended into the 1970’s, as a young Black girl growing up in the southside of Chicago with big dreams and the talent and intellect to match.