Nationwide -- In honor of Women’s History Month, the National Youth Foundation (NYF) presents the almost uncaptured history of Hettie Simmons Love - the first African American to graduate from the preeminent University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Students from the Philadelphia, PA area interviewed Mrs. Love, who is 98-years old, and wrote and illustrated an original picture book entitled Hettie Simmons Love: Penn Pioneer that chronicles her life.
The story begins in Jacksonville, Florida in the 1920s, where a young girl, less than 60 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, attended the prestigious Boylan-Haven Boarding School. After graduating from Boylan-Haven, Hettie Simmons enrolled at a top HBCU, Fisk University, where she excelled in mathematics and joined the renowned Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.
