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Charles Drew

Charles Drew
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   6.62

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    life-saving, perishable, plasma, well-known, military, scholarship, public, wounded, academic, transfusion, widely, protest, born, quarterback, postage, daily
     content words:    Charles Drew, Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School, African American, At Dunbar High School, James E., Walker Memorial, Amherst College, McGill University, World War II, Since British

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Charles Drew
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     Charles Drew was born in 1904 in Washington, DC. He attended DC public schools, including Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School, named after a famous African American poet. At Dunbar High School, Charles excelled in sports. He played football, baseball, basketball, and track. In both his junior and senior years, he won medals for his achievements in sports. He was awarded the James E. Walker Memorial medal for being his school's best all around athlete.
 
2     Next, Charles applied to Amherst College in Massachusetts. He was accepted there on an athletic scholarship. Amherst must have been glad that they had offered Drew the athletic scholarship, because he went on to be a star quarterback on their football team. He was also a MVP in baseball; he was captain of his track team. He was also a high hurdles champion, not just of his college but also on the national level. In 1926, Charles Drew graduated from Amherst, one of only 16 African-American graduates in the decade of the 1920's.
 
3     With all of his athletic achievements and honors, you might wonder why Charles Drew is not a well-known name in sports today. Charles Drew is not the name of a famous Olympic athlete. He did not become a football or basketball star. This is because Charles Drew was not only a star athlete; he was also an academic star. As he progressed through high school and college, Drew excelled in both academics and athletics. Eventually, however, he had to choose one or the other, and for Charles Drew it was no contest. He chose to follow his interest in science and health and to go on to medical school to become a doctor.

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