Early Life, Education and Career
The great-granddaughter of immigrants who owned a local bakery, Barbara Mikulski is the oldest of three daughters of Christine Eleanor (née Kutz) and William Mikulski. Her parents were both of Polish descent. She was born and raised in the Highlandtown neighborhood of East Baltimore. During her high school years at the Institute of Notre Dame, she worked in her parents' grocery store, delivering groceries to seniors in her neighborhood who were unable to leave their homes.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Mount Saint Agnes College (now a part of Loyola University Maryland) in 1958, she obtained her master's degree in social work (MSW) from the University of Maryland School of Social Work in 1965. She worked as a social worker for Catholic charities and Baltimore's Department of Social Services, helping at-risk children and educating seniors about the Medicare program. Mikulski became an activist social worker when she heard about plans to build a 16-lane highway through Baltimore's Fells Point and Canton neighborhoods. She helped organize communities on both sides of the city and stopped the construction of the road, saving Fells Point and Baltimore's Inner Harbor.
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Famous quotes containing the words early, education and/or career:
“Three early risings make an extra day.”
—Chinese proverb.
“We find that the child who does not yet have language at his command, the child under two and a half, will be able to cooperate with our education if we go easy on the “blocking” techniques, the outright prohibitions, the “no’s” and go heavy on “substitution” techniques, that is, the redirection or certain impulses and the offering of substitute satisfactions.”
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