Hillary Clinton

===Wellesley College years===
[[File:1968 Wellesley College Government Presidential Candidates at Panel.jpg|thumb|alt=Rhodham sitting on a panel, flanked by two other candidates|Rodham campaigning for [[Wellesley College]] government president in 1968, an election which she later won]]

In 1965, Rodham enrolled at [[Wellesley College]], where she majored in [[political science]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://archive.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/03/04/a_students_words_a_candidates_struggle/|title=A student's words, a candidate's struggle|last=Levenson|first=Michael|date=March 4, 2007|work=[[Boston Globe]]|access-date=August 22, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wellesley.edu/events/commencement/archives/1992commencement/commencementaddress|title=Hillary Rodham Clinton Remarks to Wellesley College Class of 1992|author=Clinton, Hillary Rodham|date=May 29, 1992|publisher=[[Wellesley College]]|access-date=August 22, 2019}}</ref> During her first year, she was president of the Wellesley [[Young Republicans]].<ref name="living31">Clinton 2003, p.&nbsp;31.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.wellesley.edu/Activities/homepage/gop/history.html |title=Wellesley College Republicans: History and Purpose |publisher=[[Wellesley College]] |date=May 16, 2007 |access-date=June 2, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060903132835/http://www.wellesley.edu/Activities/homepage/gop/history.html |archive-date=September 3, 2006}} Gives organization's prior name.</ref> As the leader of this "[[Rockefeller Republican]]"-oriented group,<ref>{{Cite book |author=Milton, Joyce |title=The First Partner: Hillary Rodham Clinton |publisher=[[William Morrow and Company]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-688-15501-8}} pp.&nbsp;27–28.</ref> she supported the elections of moderate Republicans [[John Lindsay]] to [[mayor of New York City]] and [[Massachusetts Attorney General|Massachusetts attorney general]] [[Edward Brooke]] to the United States Senate.<ref>Brock 1996, pp.&nbsp;12–13.</ref> She later stepped down from this position. In 2003, Clinton would write that her views concerning the [[civil rights movement]] and the [[Vietnam War]] were changing in her early college years.<ref name="living31"/> In a letter to her youth minister at that time, she described herself as "a mind conservative and a heart liberal".<ref>Bernstein 2007, p.&nbsp;50. Bernstein states she believed this combination was possible and that no equation better describes the adult Hillary Clinton.</ref> In contrast to the factions in the 1960s that advocated radical actions against the political system, she sought to work for change within it.<ref name="bg011293">{{Cite news|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/1993/01/12/hillary-the-wellesley-years/OEapzWGuzSNAFiIHL2zm9K/story.html|title=Hillary: The Wellesley Years: The woman who will live in the White House was a sharp-witted activist in the class of '69|author=Kenney, Charles|date=January 12, 1993|work=[[Boston Globe]]|access-date=August 22, 2019}}</ref><ref>Bernstein 2007, pp.&nbsp;42–46; Troy 2006, pp.&nbsp;18–19.</ref>

By her [[Junior (education year)|junior]] year, Rodham became a supporter of the antiwar [[1968 United States presidential election|presidential nomination campaign]] of Democrat [[Eugene McCarthy]].<ref name="nyt090507"/> In early 1968, she was elected president of the Wellesley College Government Association, a position she held until early 1969.<ref name="bg011293"/><ref name="wcaddr"/> Following the [[assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.]], Rodham organized a two-day student strike and worked with Wellesley's black students to recruit more black students and faculty.<ref name="nyt090507">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/05/us/politics/05clinton.html|title=In Turmoil of '68, Clinton Found a New Voice|author=Leibovich, Mark|date=September 7, 2007|work=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=August 22, 2019}}</ref> In her student government role, she played a role in keeping Wellesley from being embroiled in the [[campus protest|student disruptions]] common to other colleges.<ref name="bg011293"/>{{sfn|Bernstein|2007|pp=53–54}} A number of her fellow students thought she might some day become the first female president of the United States.<ref name="bg011293"/>

To help her better understand her changing political views, Professor [[Alan Schechter]] assigned Rodham to intern at the [[Republican Conference of the United States House of Representatives|House Republican Conference]], and she attended the "Wellesley in Washington" summer program.<ref name="nyt090507"/> Rodham was invited by moderate New York Republican representative [[Charles Goodell]] to help Governor [[Nelson Rockefeller]]'s late-entry campaign for the Republican nomination.<ref name="nyt090507"/> Rodham attended the [[1968 Republican National Convention]] in [[Miami Beach, Florida|Miami Beach]]. However, she was upset by the way Richard Nixon's campaign portrayed Rockefeller and by what she perceived as the convention's "veiled" racist messages, and she left the Republican Party for good.<ref name="nyt090507"/>
Rodham [[Hillary Rodham senior thesis#Thesis|wrote her senior thesis]], a critique of the tactics of radical community organizer [[Saul Alinsky]], under Professor Schechter.<ref name="msn030207"/> Years later, while she was the first lady, access to her thesis was [[Hillary Rodham senior thesis#White House and Wellesley limiting of access|restricted at the request of the White House]] and it became the subject of some speculation. The thesis was later released.<ref name="msn030207">{{cite news |title=Reading Hillary Rodham's hidden thesis |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17388372/ |author=Dedman, Bill |publisher=[[MSNBC]] |date=May 9, 2007 |author-link=Bill Dedman}}</ref>

In 1969, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts,<ref name="nyt-bio"/> with departmental honors in political science.<ref name="msn030207"/> After some fellow seniors requested that the college administration allow a student speaker at commencement, she became the first student in Wellesley College history to speak at the event. Her address followed that of the [[commencement speaker]], Senator [[Edward Brooke]].<ref name="wcaddr">{{cite web|url=https://www.wellesley.edu/events/commencement/archives/1969commencement/studentspeech|title=Hillary D. Rodham's 1969 Student Commencement Speech|author=Rodham, Hillary|date=May 31, 1969|publisher=[[Wellesley College]]|access-date=August 22, 2019}}</ref>{{sfn|Gerth|Van Natta|2007|pp=34–36}} After her speech, she received a standing ovation that lasted seven minutes.<ref name="bg011293"/><ref>{{Cite news |title=Brooke Speech Challenged by Graduate |work=[[Fitchburg Sentinel]] |date=June 2, 1969}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Brooke Speech Draws Reply |work=[[Nevada State Journal]] |date=June 2, 1969}}</ref> She was featured in an article published in ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'' magazine,<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The Class of '69 |magazine=[[Life (magazine)|Life]] |date=June 20, 1969 |pages=28–33 |url=http://life.time.com/history/hillary-clinton-in-1969-photos-of-a-recent-college-grad/attachment/15_hillary2/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141225145440/http://life.time.com/history/hillary-clinton-in-1969-photos-of-a-recent-college-grad/attachment/15_hillary2/ |archive-date=December 25, 2014}} The article features Rodham and two student commencement speakers from other schools, with photos and excerpts from their speeches.</ref><ref name="time69">{{cite magazine |url=http://time.com/3502935/life-with-hillary-portraits-of-a-wellesley-grad-1969/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141115203420/http://time.com/3502935/life-with-hillary-portraits-of-a-wellesley-grad-1969/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 15, 2014 |title=Hillary Clinton: Photos of the Future First Lady as a Wellesley Grad |last=Cosgrove |first=Ben |date=February 15, 2014 |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=August 16, 2016}}</ref> because of the response to a part of her speech that criticized Senator Brooke.{{sfn|Gerth|Van Natta|2007|pp=34–36}} She also appeared on [[Irv Kupcinet]]'s nationally syndicated television talk show as well as in Illinois and New England newspapers.{{sfn|Bernstein|2007|p=70}} She was asked to speak at the 50th anniversary convention of the [[League of Women Voters]] in Washington, D.C., the next year.<ref>Clinton, ''What Happened'', p. 198.</ref> That summer, she worked her way across Alaska, washing dishes in [[Mount McKinley National Park]] and [[fish processing|sliming]] salmon in a fish processing cannery in [[Valdez, Alaska|Valdez]] (which fired her and shut down overnight when she complained about unhealthy conditions).<ref>Morris 1996, p.&nbsp;139; Bernstein 2007, p.&nbsp;105. Clinton would later write, and repeat on the ''[[Late Show with David Letterman]]'', that sliming fish was the best preparation she would ever have for living in Washington. Clinton 2003, pp.&nbsp;42–43.</ref>