Early Life and Education
Born and raised in a house of Jewish heritage, Schwerner attended Pelham Memorial High School in Pelham, New York. He was called Mickey by friends and colleagues. His mother was a science teacher at New Rochelle High School and his father was a businessman. Schwerner attended Michigan State University, originally intending to become a veterinarian. He transferred to Cornell University, and switched his major to sociology. While an undergraduate at Cornell, he integrated the school's chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity. He entered graduate school at the School of Social Work at Columbia University.
As a boy, Schwerner befriended Robert Reich, later US Secretary of Labor, and served as his protector against bullies.
Read more about this topic: Michael Schwerner
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or education:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“Parents ... are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don’t fulfil the promise of their early years.”
—Anthony Powell (b. 1905)
“Next to our free political institutions, our free public-school system ranks as the greatest achievement of democratic life in America ...”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
“Toward education marriage nervous breakdown, operation, teaching
school, and learning to be mad, in a dream—what is this
life?”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)