George Washington Carver Internship Program

"Learn to do common things uncommonly well; we must always keep in mind that anything that helps fill the dinner pail is valuable".
-George Washington Carver

Who is George Washington Carver?

From humble beginnings as a slave in Missouri to being renowned worldwide as a scientist, humanitarian, and educator George Washington Carver has definitely left his mark on history, and his legacy continues to this day. Being a sickly child Carver wasn’t able to work in the fields as the other slaves had to, so he worked around the house and in the garden, it was while working in the gardens that he developed his love for nature and learning.

Carver's formal school training was done at Iowa State University. Carver received both his Bachelor’s (1894) and Masters of Science (1896) degrees from Iowa State University he received an honorary doctorate degree from Simpson College in 1928. Carver was truly a pioneer at Iowa State University by being the first African-American student and also the first African-American faculty member in Horticulture.

While George Washington Carver is known for the advancements that he made to farming practices as well as the more than 300 inventions that he made with peanuts, and hundreds more uses for soybeans, sweet potatoes. While it was his work done at Booker T. Washington’s Tuskegee Institute that he gained national recognition for his work in the field of Agriculture

Being a humble man, Carver was sought after by powerful leaders from both business or governments as a consultant. He worked with three United States Presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. He also had a friendship with Henry Ford; it was believed that the two were working on a way to create a fuel from soybeans in the 1940s. While a student at Iowa State University Carver met a young man named Henry A. Wallace who later became the Secretary of Agriculture, as well as a Vice President for Franklin Roosevelt, and founder of Pioneer Hi-Bred International. Mr. Wallace considered Carver a huge influence in his life.

After his death in January of 1943 Carver was given many honors. One was the $30,000 allocated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for the building of the George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, MO, which opened in July of 1953. This monument was the first dedicated to a non-President and the first dedicated to an African-American. In recognition of the legacy of Mr. Carver he has been honored with two stamps (1948 and 1998), a half dollar coin that circulated from 1951 to 1954, and a Naval ship, the USS George Washington Carver, named in his honor.

For more information on Carver’s life you can click on the link below which is a biography by Toby Fishbein http://www.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/gwc/bio.html.  You may also want to visit the George Washington Carver National Monument’s website at http://www.nps.gov/archive/gwca/expanded/gwc.htm.