the school. The principle of Bridgewater Normal School, Marshall Conant, had a passion for mathematics, astronomy and mechanics. Julia Sears and Mr. Conant worked closely together during her time as a student there, possibly influencing her later career choice of becoming a mathematics professor. At the end of her education, Julia Sears received a General Diploma of the Institution, similar to a modern-day GED. Teaching Between 1860 and 1866 Julia Sears taught at a normal school in Cape Cod. In 1866, Sears was a teacher in Western State Normal School, later to be named Farmington State Normal School. The principal of Western State Normal School was George M. Gage, but in 1868 he moved to Mankato, Minnesota. Julia Sears had known George Gage, as a schoolmate, at Bridgewater Normal School. After Gage's departure, Sears went to teach at Prescott School for Boys and Girls in Charlestown, Boston. From 1869 to 1871, Sears was the Head Assistant in Boston. In the summer of 1870, George Gage offered Sears the position of Head Assistant at Mankato Normal School, but Sears refused this offer. During this time, Sears studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mankato Normal School Julia Sears started teaching at the Mankato Normal School, now known as Minnesota State University, in 1871. After only one year, Sears made history by becoming the president in 1872. At this point in history, this kind of achievement was not well documented or communicated well. For the next 50–80 years, there are documents of other women believed to be the first female presidents of a U.S. public college. Her first address to its female graduates was forthright, stating: You are stepping out into life at a time when you hear not the sound, 'thus far in education may you go and no farther, this place you may fill, but not that'; but, instead, universities and colleges open wide their doors and bid you enter, and any place you are fitted to fill is no longer denied you. However, such frankness was still controversial, and she was forced to leave the university after only a year. She retained considerable support among the students and the Mankato community. This support shifted into a protest, becoming so heated that it resulted in expulsions and was known as the Sears Rebellion. She then took a post as professor of mathematics at Peabody Normal School (now Peabody College of