University Life and Work Life

Hunter College in New York City

Hunter College

I graduated high school in 1949 with impeccable grades and a goal of attending university. Of course as a Jewish female, all odds were against me. My father thought it unrealistic for me to want to join the workforce rather than simply get married and serve as the woman of the household. I rebelled against my family and began to attend Hunter College in New York City. My studies were focused in business management and psychology. Throughout my time in college I yearned to understand general human behaviors and their relationships with business and industry. For four years, I delved into why humans made decisions they made in order to hopefully gain a more holistic view of corruption in society. I hoped to utilize this knowledge to serve others; my goal remained rooted in the creation and use of the atomic bomb.

Right after college, I moved to Washington D.C. to work with the National Association for Retarded Children (NARC), which is a nonprofit organization dedicated to assist in the development and care of children and adults with intellectual disability. NARC was formed in 1950, in a time when almost no knowledge existed on the topic of intellectual disabilities. The postwar environment was a breeding ground for people with disabilities to become activists. The overall expectation of many people had become that the government should support the access of disabled peoples to education, work, and health care. NARC held this expectation, and I sought to make it a reality. With my history in psychology and management, I was able to take a role in building up this organization in order to gain a higher influence on policies regarding people with intellectual disabilities.