Early Life and Education
Booker was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the affluent town of Harrington Park, New Jersey, 20 miles (32 km) north of Newark. His parents, Cary Alfred and Carolyn Rose (Jordan) Booker, were among the first black executives at IBM. In 2009, he told US News that he was raised in a religious household, and that he and his family attended a small, African Methodist Episcopal Church, in New Jersey. Booker graduated from Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan and was named to the USA Today All-USA high school football team in 1986.
Booker went on to Stanford University, receiving a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1991 and a Master of Arts in sociology the following year. While at Stanford, Booker played varsity football. He also made the All–Pacific Ten Academic team and was elected senior class president. In addition, he ran The Bridge, a student-run crisis hotline and organized help for youth in East Palo Alto, from Stanford students. After Stanford, he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at the University of Oxford, and obtained an honors degree in U.S. history in 1994 as a member of The Queen's College. Booker received a J.D. in 1997 from Yale Law School, where he operated free legal clinics for low-income residents of New Haven. At Yale, he was a founding member of the Chai Society (now the Eliezer Society). He was also a Big Brother and was active in the National Black Law Students Association. Booker lived in Newark during his final year at Yale.
Read more about this topic: Cory Booker
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