The Vast Wonder of the World: Biologist Ernest Everett Just

At thirteen, Ernest left home to attend boarding school in Orangeburg, South Carolina. It was here he published his first poem! When he graduated, Ernest returned home, hoping to begin teaching in his mother’s school, but a fire had destroyed it.
Ernest left the segregated South on a steamship to
continue his education up North. He dove into his new
classes at a college preparatory school in New Hampshire.
While he was away, his mother fell ill with tuberculosis and died. Ernest was stunned. Full of grief and confusion, Ernest did the only thing he knew to do: return to his studies.
He went on to Dartmouth College, working to pay his own way-and to support his brother and sister back home. With less time to study, Ernest failed a class.
He thought of his family and how they depended on him. He thought of his mother’s hard work and belief in education.
He had to keep going.
Ernest took a biology class and his life changed forever. In that class, he discovered the microscopic world of the cell.
Scientists knew that the cell is the smallest building block of life, but many had only a basic
understanding of how the different parts of the cell worked together as new life developed. Ernest wanted to unlock this mystery.
And he did.
Ernest became a biology professor at Howard University in Washington, DC, teaching students to question and observe.