United StatesCondoleezza Rice
Born: 14 November 1954Birthplace: Birmingham, Alabama
Best known as: U.S. Secretary of State, 2005-09
Condoleezza Rice was U.S. Secretary of State from 2005 until 2009 under President George W. Bush, after serving four years as National Security Advisor (2001-05). As a child, Rice was a gifted student and a prodigy on the piano, and she entered college at the age of 15 with the intention of becoming a concert pianist. Along the way she was influenced by political scientist Josef Korbel, the father of former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Rice changed her plans and studied international politics, and by the early 1980s she was teaching at Stanford University and becoming a prominent public voice on international affairs. She also worked with the Pentagon and with the administration of George Bush the elder as an expert on foreign affairs. She returned to Stanford during the Bill Clinton administration before being tapped as NSA by the younger President Bush. In January of 2005, after Bush was elected to a second term, Rice replaced Colin Powell as Secretary of State and served until the end of Bush's term.
Extra credit: Rice remains a talented musician; in 2002 she performed a concert in Washington, D.C. with cellist Yo Yo Ma... Rice had an oil tanker named for her while she was a member of the Chevron Corporation board of directors during the 1990s. In 2001 the company changed the name of the ship to the Altair Voyager... Rice is the first African-American woman to hold the post of Secretary of State. The first woman to hold the post was Colin Powell's predecessor, Madeleine Albright.
Copyright © 1998-2006 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.
 |
Return to the Encyclopedia of Prominent African Americans. |
End-of-the-Year Resources
The end of the school year is quickly approaching! Celebrate with fun activities, then prepare yourself and your students with report card advice, summer reading guides, summer math, and more.
Common Core Lessons & Resources
Is your school district adopting the Common Core? Work these new standards into your curriculum with our reading, writing, speaking, social studies, and math lessons and activities. Each piece of content incorporates the Common Core State Standards into the activity or lesson.
Top 10 Galleries
Explore our most popular Top 10 galleries, from Top 10 Behavior Management Tips for the Classroom and Top 10 Classroom Organization Tips from Veteran Teachers to Top 10 Free (& Cheap) Rewards for Students and Top 10 Things Every Teacher Needs in the Classroom. We'll help you get organized and prepared for every classroom situation, holiday, and more! Check out all of our galleries today.
June Calendar of Events
June is full of holidays and events that you can incorporate into your standard curriculum. Our Educators' Calendar outlines activities for each event, including: Summer Begins (6/21), Helen Keller's Birthday (6/27/1880), World War I Began (6/28/1914), and Meteor Day (6/30). Plus, celebrate Child Vision Awareness Month, National Rivers Month, and National Safety Month all June long!
Causes We Support: We Give Books
Visit We Give Books, an ever-growing, free online library of children's picture books! For every book read on the site, a brand-new book will be donated to a children's literacy campaign of your choosing. Read aloud to students or encourage them read independently, and you'll teach them to help others at the same time. Giving is as simple as reading!
